


What We Have Is Real

by dreaming_is_believing2



Category: Ready Player One (2018), Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Multi, Romance, Science Fiction, ready player one au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-06
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2019-08-19 22:06:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 25,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16543184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreaming_is_believing2/pseuds/dreaming_is_believing2
Summary: In the year of 2045, Lance McClain was a insecure yet lovable boy while living his everyday life. But in his own secret corner of the world, he became BlueL1on in the OASIS. He's in the competition that his idol had created to leave behind a legacy. To be able to take control of the OASIS. With the help of his friends and the mysterious H4des, they'll be able to take down the Galra "Empire".





	1. Chapter One: The OASIS

It was the year 2045, and everyone just didn't really care about their problems anymore. After all, the story begins with a young Cuban boy who goes by the name of Lance McClain. At the age of 18, he was always by himself and cruising everywhere just to avoid other people. But he was also good at it, and it just didn't matter to him. 

Besides, everyone tended to avoid each other rather than come together like society should. 

Anyways, Lance managed to sneak out of his apartment and head to his hideout to enjoy life the only way he knew how. Considering reality was just a downer that no one really wanted to live in it anymore. Which meant that there was nowhere left for anything to go. Except for one place, the OASIS. The OASIS was a place that was created with the mind of Alfor Altea. With him creating this, he saw the future of the world. And this made him a hero to everyone in reality, for he built that future.

The OASIS is a place where the limits of reality are people's own imagination. With this world, anyone could do anything they wanted, go anywhere and be anything they wanted. Everyone who goes here expands the OASIS, making it so the legacy could live on. 

Everyone comes here for all the things they can do, but they stay, for all the things they can be. The avatars of every person is unique, they can be tall, scary, live action, cartoon, etc. After all, it's all based on their imagination. 

Anyways, while Lance was in the OASIS, he was BlueL1on, Blue for short whenever no one wanted to say his full username. He had just updated his hair color to be white, with Altean markings as a reference to Voltron and pointy ears. He wore an Altean crown and had white markings underneath his eyes. And finally, Blue wore the blue paladin armor. 

This is what his avatar looks like:  
"Locate Chef." Blue told the computer.

With a beep and the tracker to find him, it found Chef.

Chef, or Y3llowChef when talking about his username, is Blue's best friend in the OASIS. As well as kind of his best friend period. Despite having never meeting him in reality. He was in Sector 12, Planet Doom. Even though Chef was easily a coward sometimes, it was also easier to go there to pick up coins to keep someone levelled up. Chef was also a mechanic, often fixing the vehicles for all avatars. 

"Hey, Blue!" Chef said through the video chat.

"Dude, the next race is in twenty minutes and I can't do the late one," Blue said on his side of the line. "What the hell are you doing?" 

But because Chef was busy shooting avatars up, Blue couldn't see his face, but he could see what his friend was doing. Even got a glimpse of two other friends of theirs, Paladin and Rover. They also were taking people down and collecting coins and artifacts. 

Artifacts may seem like they aren't important, but it's the complete opposite. Alfor made sure to scatter enough randomly powerful stuff everywhere for people with the skills to earn it. For example, Chef got an artifact that if someone wears it, they can turn into any kind of giant robot for two minutes. Death matches and artifact hunts were good ways to coin-snatch, but depending on the level of armor, it was also pretty risky. 

After all, everyone starts out the same, but the more coin they earn, the more they level up. If they get killed, the avatar can come back to life but.....they lose all their stuff. Everything they worked for, all the money, the clothes, the weapons, everything. 

Some people spend all their time in the OASIS, and sometimes it doesn't do them any good. 

Blue noticed that the next race started in ten minutes and made sure to remind Chef of it as well.

"Okay, Mom, I heard you." Chef spoke sarcastically. 

The OASIS was the "child" of genius Alfor Altea. His partner, Coran Gorgeous, released the first OASIS built in 2025. It was such a huge hit, that it made them both very rich. Coran was out of the picture after a few years. But Alfor? He wasn't just the owner of the world's biggest company. He became like a god, everyone loved him. They worshiped him as much as they did his creation. 

But on January 7, 2040....He died. But it wasn't like he didn't leave anything behind for his legacy. What he left behind, changed everything. 

"Hello, I'm Alfor Altea. If you're watching this, I'm dead. Before I died, I created what we in the biz call an "Easter egg." A hidden object in a game that gives special powers to whoever discovers it. The first person to find the egg that I've hidden somewhere in the OASIS will inherit my stock of my company, currently valued in excess of half a trillion dollars' worth and will have total control of the OASIS itself. In the form of my avatar, Alorak the All-Knowing, I created three keys. Three hidden challenges test for worthy straits revealing three hidden keys to three magic gates. And those with the skill to survive these straits will reach the end, where the prize awaits. Off you go keys. The keys aren't just laying around under a rock somewhere. I suppose you could say they're invisible, hidden in a dark room that's at the center of a maze that's located somewhere up here. Let the hunt for Halliday's Easter egg begin."

These news were so huge that almost anyone would try to do it. Especially Blue and his determination.


	2. Chapter Two: The Race

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blue and Chef go into a race that is needed to be completed in order to get the first key. But they also end up meeting H4des, also known as the Soldier Bolder. As well as Blue's idol and OASIS crush.

The challenge is to find three keys, but in five years, not a single person has gotten even one. With the big scoreboard entirely empty. The first gunter (aka egg hunter) got the first clue and had figured out the first challenge. Once they did, a portal appeared. 

But the challenge to win the first key was a race designed by Alfor himself, that was so hard, nobody had ever finished it. The only ones still trying are the gunters, like Blue, Paladin, Rover and Chef. And of course, the soldiers.

The soldiers work for Galra "Empire". They're the second largest company in the world, with their desires of becoming the first. Which is why they're putting everything that they can into Alfor's contest. They call them the soldiers, because of two reasons. One being that they act like soldiers. Two being that the company rule was no name, just numbers. Galra also has a support team made up of entirely Alfor scholars (or fans might someone say). Just like Blue or any gunter, they spend all their time studying the pop culture that Alfor was obsessed with, to try and find clues to solve this contest. 

But they're just following the orders of the head of Galra.....Zarkon. He had a last name, but he had gotten rid of it to seem more intimidating. 

"How'd you get here before me?" Blue asked Chef once he reached the front, close to where the starting line was.

"Well, I didn't make a stop at the hair salon," Chef teased. "Seriously dude, just pick a color already."

With a smile and a handshake, the two best friends greeted one another. 

"Saved you a spot." Blue thanked him, but when he took a look at his fuel, it meant that he had to go to the back. 

"Going back there to skim coins from crashed cars?" Hunk raised his eyebrow. "That's just sad bro!"

"Fuel's low!" Blue yelled back at him.

"Oh, but you still had enough to pay for the dye!"

As Blue walked to the back, he had readied his vehicle. Once getting to an empty spot, he threw it down onto it. As it enlarged and built itself up, it was revealed to be Slushious from "Home". It was surprising that it wasn't taken, but Blue was glad for that. With a small smirk, he got in and readied his engine. What he hadn't expected was for someone to pull up beside him on a hovercraft, wearing purple and black armor. The armor included a hood and a protective mask that hid the avatar's entire face. It had Blue intrigued, as this avatar looked familiar to him. 

Just as the race was about to begin, the city rearranged itself and a bridge was built automatically and landed on the starting line. 

"First to the key!" Blue shouted at the yellow light.

"First to the egg!" Chef shouted back a few seconds later. 

And once the light went green, the dangerous race began. Not even a minute in, cars had already started to crash, since the track was pretty covered with plenty of cars. The purple armor avatar sped through quickly on their hovercraft, as it went by Blue and his car. Chef managed to cut through many different cars that had crashed, getting him further into the race. 

Purple armor person kept managing to survive as they go the much more dangerous directions, going through them as if it's so simple. When they were right by Blue, it suddenly hit him why this avatar was so familiar to him. 

"Chef, are you seeing this?" Blue asks through the mike.

"Yeah, I see it," Chef got a closer look at the hovercraft they were riding. "That's the hovercraft from that weird show where five robotic lions form a giant robot."

"Hey! It's not a weird show! It happens to be an interesting cartoon with great animation!" Blue yelled, offended at his friend calling his favorite cartoon weird. "But not the hovercraft! Forget the hovercraft!"

The purple armor continued to be driving beside Blue, which made his heart race a little. 

"The guy! I think it's H4des!" He spoke with a squeaky and excited voice. Why he was so excited? 

"The H4des! The Soldier Bolder!" Chef spoke in disbelief. There was no way that a legend like him would be driving so close to Blue right now. Especially considering Blue was a fanboy of his. He's seen all his walkthroughs, his Twitch streams. And Blue just stared at Hades in amazement and awe, as if he were the best thing in the OASIS.

Now knowing that a legend was racing against him, Blue felt the urge to impress this guy. After all, who wouldn't want to impress the Soldier Bolder (as well as flirt a little). The race continued to go on, with still a bunch of people dying and vehicles crashing and burning. Which also meant that Blue was able to get some coins from them as well. With the more fuel that he has now, he started to go much faster, mainly to impress H4des in the process. 

But soon enough, it was just Chef, H4des and Blue remaining. Even as Blue focused on the road, he also couldn't help but stare at H4des. After all, it would be so cool to be able to talk to him. As they go by a T-Rex, it beats the shit out of Chef's car, eliminating him from the race. But there was one thing that was the biggest threat to the entire race and beating it determined the fate of who got the first key. And that was the Bewilderbeast. That beast was impossible to get past!

The faster Blue drove, the closer the dragon was getting to him. It was following both him and H4des, but mostly Blue because he was so close. It managed to fire ice at Slushious once, then twice. For a few minutes, he managed to get away from the dragon and the Bewilderbeast continued to go the way that it's programmed to go. Which also meant that a portion of the track was demolished, just like usual. 

However, Slushious is a flying car, Blue manages to go over it and get close to the finish line. But before he could actually get to it, the Bewilderbeast blows ice directly at the car, sending Blue flying out. And it was sad too, considering he had gotten so close! 

Not long after, H4des is right on his tail, getting so much closer to the line than he had. The Bewilderbeast was not far off either, causing Blue to take immediate action. Running as fast as he could, he managed to get close enough to the legend and got him off the hovercraft. And just in time as well, as H4des's hovercraft got totaled by the Bewilderbeast. 

Once the dragon left, Blue finally got the confidence to look down at H4des. He couldn't see his expression, but he was most likely glaring through that mask. Probably because Blue tackled him and kept him from reaching the finish line. The grizzled purple armor avatar stood up, pulling off the hood and the mask vanished.

Blue's started beating a mile a minute once he saw the face of this famous avatar. His eyes were purple orbs, with yellow surrounding them. Purple skin and pointy ears. H4des's hair with dark purple at the top and light purple at the tips. And he had a mullet. That caused Blue to want to slightly laugh, but he kept his mouth shut. H4des had a slight scowl that was strict and stern. Even though Blue was a fan of his, no one has ever seen his face.

Anyways, the two of them were panting and H4des did not look pleasantly happy with Blue at all  
Anyways, the two of them were panting and H4des did not look pleasantly happy with Blue at all. Not a word is spoken, with a definite awkwardness in the air. With another glare, H4des gets a closer look at his now broken hovercraft. 

"Damn I loved that thing," He finally spoke. "And now, thanks to you, it's totaled!" 

Blue awkwardly rubbed his neck as H4des turned his head to glare at him once more. But, he took a breath and put a smirk on his face. 

"Chillax, Mullet," He said teasingly. "My friend Chef, could totally fix it for you." The purple avatar rose an eyebrow at him with an annoyed look. With a groan, he agreed and followed Blue to find Chef so he could fix it. 

Not that long after, Chef took a cocky Blue and an annoyed H4des to his workshop. Chef could see the obvious tension between the two, because the white-haired one was flirting with the emo one, which made him seem like a third wheel. But he wasn't. 

H4des took a look around and took notice of a certain robot that was being constructed. His eyes grew wide, with something sort of like a smile spread across his face.

"No way!" He stared at it in awe. "Where did you find a Voltron!" 

"Find it? I'm building it!" Chef scoffed. "It's not done yet though."

"Wait a minute," Blue turned dramatically to face the strange looking avatar. "Earlier, you called Voltron weird!" 

Chef started to burst out laughing at his best friend, leaving him with a pouty look. 

"The show itself is weird," He smiled. "But Voltron is such an interesting weapon that it would be totally useful for a future battle." Blue whined about this but H4des suddenly smacked him to shut up. 

And surprisingly, Blue didn't bite at H4des for hurting him, even though he was annoyed with him now. 

"Anyways, Chef here is top-rated on the mod boards," He explained to the furry one. "A lot of people in the OASIS pay him top coin." Blue was trying his best to impress H4des, considering he wasn't only famous, but he also didn't want him to be annoyed the whole time. 

"Hey, check this out!" Blue ran over and pointed out a lunchbox on the near table. He showed all the cars and ships that Chef has built over his time in the OASIS, which didn't please him at all. But after Blue wasn't listening to his warnings at all, Chef shut the top, almost getting his friend's fingers. Which led to him whining some more while H4des was starting to lose his patience slightly. 

Once the bickering between Chef and Blue is over, the mechanic finally asks for the shrunken hovercraft. H4des throws it to him and after taking a brief look at it, Chef leaves the room to work on it. Leaving it to just be Blue and H4des now. 

"Yeah, he's pretty great." Blue said with a smirk.

"I'm guessing the two of you have already clanned." H4des started to walk away from him, to be able to check out the workshop a little more.

When he said that, it kind of surprised Blue. But at the same time it didn't. 

"Oh, Chef? Nah," Blue walked over to his side. "Trust me, he's really good but I don't clan."

"Why? The whole point of the Blue Lion is to team up and support a team," H4des looked him in the eyes. "That doesn't exactly make sense."

"What about you, H4des?" Blue got closer to him. "You're supposed to be the god of the Underworld, lord of the dead. But you're still a legend, don't you have clans wanting to sign you up?" H4des looked away to avoid the weird gaze that he was giving him. 

Instead of answering, he changes the subject.

"Favorite shooter?" 

"Excuse me?"

H4des rubbed his forehead in annoyance.

"Alfor Altea's favorite first-person shooter." This caused Blue to get a little bit cocky.

"Please, GoldenEye and playing as Oddjob," Blue smiled. "Is this a test?"

H4des's expression soon turned to an evil looking expression. He kept asking questions about Alfor and Blue continued to cockily answer right back. Soon it came to a point where he didn't have to say anything and the white-haired avatar said the information for no reason. 

"But his favorite quote was from "The Lego Movie"," He said slowly. "You...don't have-"

"-To be the bad guy." H4des finished for him. Blue felt a slight blush in the real world, it's not everyday that someone like him finishes his sentences. So he awkwardly asks for a high five, but the yellow purple-eyed avatar just turns away. 

"What would you do? If you won the contest?" 

This question catches Blue off guard. He's thought about it some, but not a whole lot. What he said was a bad move however. 

"I'd...I'd move into a huge mansion, buy a bunch of cool shit, not be poor." He could feel his heart beating really fast with every moment that he's just around him. 

H4des, however, had his heart beat be at a normal rate. 

"Now I know why you stopped short." He said bluntly. 

Blue turned around and glared slightly at the other guy. He stopped because of the dragon, no one ever makes it past the Bewilderbeast, it's like a rule after all. That part didn't sit well with H4des at all. 

"Well, then you know it can't be true," He fired back. "Because Alfor hated making rules!" This soon becomes an argument between them both, which Chef watched with both enjoyment and worry.

"A real gunter would risk everything to save the OASIS from the Galra "Empire"," H4des glared. "Otherwise, what's this all for?" 

And that was Chef's cue to intervene and give the fixed hovercraft bike back to H4des. He shrinks it, puts it back into his inventory and gives Blue one final glare. But before he logs out, he runs his fingers down the altean marks on Blue's cheeks. It caused him to shudder from that part. 

"I'll wave to you from the finish line," He spoke once more. "Oh." Once it appears that he taken the goggles off, he vanished. 

Chef placed his hand on Blue's shoulder.

"Well, that went well." Chef smiled teasingly. 

"Shut up!" Blue starts to walk away. "It's partly your fault, Mr. Big Mouth."

Once getting a good three feet away from his best friend, he hears his mother in the real world.

"Lance? Lance? Where the hell are my gloves?" 

"Oh, shit! Gotta go!" Blue says one last thing before taking his goggles off as well, signing off.


	3. Chapter 3: A Clue?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blue makes a visit to the Alfor Journals and discovers something essential for the contest.

The moment Lance logged off, he knew that he was in big trouble with not only his mother, but his father. Leaving his hidden spot, he headed back to the small apartment that they lived in. Considering it takes awhile to get there, he listens in on the X1 bodysuit commercial. It would be cool to be able to feel everything that he does in the OASIS, but it's also really expensive as well. 

Once he had climbed through the window, Lance is immediately pulled against the wall by his father. It was super sudden and unbelievable at how well it was timed. 

"I zeroed out 'cause of your broke-ass gloves!" Mr. McClain yelled at his son, who was trembling in fear. 

"Who-who told you to use them?" Lance's words came out as a stutter, he really didn't want his father to hurt him.

"You took your mother's, that's why!" 

He finally let Lance go and the Cuban boy walked just a little away to stay out of his grasp at least a little. 

"So you lost a death match," He was still nervous to speak. "Why don't you just respawn and level up like everyone else?" Little did Lance know that that was the wrong thing to say, as it brought news to not only his attention, but his mother's. 

"You don't get it! I bought all these power-ups for this challenge and then I lose it all!" Mr. McClain barked in anger. "That artifact was gonna pay for the house!" That's when Lance's mother walked in, her face filled with worry for her son. 

She separates the two of them before asking her husband the question that she and Lance were both thinking. 

"Wait," Mrs. McClain spoke calmly. "How much of the house money did you spend on upgrades?" This caused a little awkward tension between the wife and husband, and Lance backed up a little to stay out of it. 

"Well, all of it, but I was gonna win!" His wife's face falls and tears started to form in her eyes. How could he use the money! That was their ticket out of this house, out of this dump. She begins to sob, walking away from her son and husband. Lance hated seeing his mother upset like this, after all, she was the reason that he stuck around with his parents. He was old enough to move out, but there was just no way he could right now, not while his father would freak out like this. He didn't care if he was abused or anything, as long as he left his mother alone.

At this news, an argument breaks out between the two adults. But Lance had to step in, in order for his father to not lay a single hand on his mother at all costs.

"My friends were in that challenge!" He carefully spoke. "You couldn't have beat them even in a bootsuit!" 

This led to Mr. McClain punching his son in the face, getting an immediate reaction from his mother. It wasn't like Lance cared however, he had chosen the wrong words to say right then. Anyways, to keep him from hurting their son again, Mrs. McClain sends her husband to their room to calm down. She and Lance share a look, hers with worry and his with fear. She gets down on the ground and takes her gloves back when he hands them to her. 

"Lance McClain, next time just let me know if you take something of mine," She held a stern tone. "Otherwise I'll have to kick you out." When she left the room, Lance watched her go with worry for her safety. 

But thinking about it more, Lance knew the reason he was named this. Lance McClain could sound familiar to some people, but there are two reasons for it. One being that he was actually named after the 80s Voltron cartoon, Lance. The second because his siblings thought that it sounded like a superhero's alter ego. Kind of like Bruce Banner or Peter Parker. 

Lance doesn't even remember who his siblings were except for their names: Marco, Luis, and Veronica. They all died when their little brother was only 5, and Mr. McClain never lets him forget it. After all, his siblings made names for themselves, while Lance was just a goofball that spent more time in the OASIS than in real life. 

"Alfor hated making rules." H4des's words were stuck in his head, and Lance didn't even know why. Why was it staying there? Maybe it was because H4des was the one who said it, and he's hot. Maybe it was because he called him out, sitting there in his tiny corner of nowhere, protecting his small slice of nothing. Or maybe....Maybe because that line actually means something, and he had missed it. Lance thought about it some more and decided that he would immediately check it out in the OASIS in the morning.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The day that the contest was announced, the Alfor Journals appeared. He said to look in his brain, and this was the closest thing that they could do. At first, it was completely jammed with gunters everywhere, looking for answers. Now, it was empty all the time, except for the gunters that haven't given up on the contest.

"Oh, BlueL1on," the Curator responded to Blue. "How shall we spend our time together today?" The Curator was the robot who would search through all of Alfor's 3D version of his memories, and he knew Blue quite well by this point. 

"Altea Gaming, 2029, office party." Blue stated confidently. To search through the memories, an avatar had to be very specific as to what memory they would like to look at. For gunters, they had to watch every memory very thoroughly for little details that could be very important clues. But this particular memory, Blue had already seen it at least a thousand times. The Curator did as he was told and took Blue down memory lane. But as it was said before, it's all rendered into a three dimensional virtual experience. 

He stepped up to the podium where someone can see the memory and it shows a little bicker between Alfor and Coran. 

"Okay, Alfor, I'm uh, I'm going." Memory Coran spoke, facing his old friend. Memory Alfor just stared at him in awkward silence, with some obvious tense in the air. "Everything changes, Alfor. Everything evolves." 

Memory Alfor just awkwardly stands there, not even realizing that a fanboy of the future was watching in awe. 

"Some things are perfect, just the way they are. Asteroids." 

"People don't live inside an Asteroid arcade cabinet." Memory Coran tries to get some sense to his friend's head, who wasn't really listening. Alfor didn't really respond with much, so he continued to clean up the party that was held there before. "Yeah, well, people are living inside the arcade that we built." 

"I built it!" Memory Alfor spoke sternly.

Memory Coran looked to Alfor with a sad look on his face, now knowing that this long-time friendship was now over. After all, this meant that he had to sign over all of his shares of the OASIS to Alfor. 

"I don't really wanna talk about it anymore." 

"Of course you don't want to talk about it, you're forcing me out!" Coran yelled.

"Closer in on Alfor." Blue tells the Curator and he does the command. It zooms in slightly on whom the memory is around, getting a new sense of perspective.

"Look, invention come with responsibilities you didn't ask for," Coran speaks again, but calmer. "All right, if you make something that people want or need, then it's up to you to set the limits. You have to make at least some rules."

Alfor tenses up at the mention of rules, surprising his friend along with it. 

"I don't wanna make anymore rules!" Blue and Alfor say at the same time, the fanboy more softly after watching this memory so many times. "I'm a dreamer. I build worlds." Blue continues to recite with his idol, since this was so important to realize. 

"We created something beautiful, Alfor, but it's changed," Coran tries to explain to him. "Okay, it's really not a game anymore."

"Are we finished?" The Curator interrupts, not really wanting to listen to this any longer. Blue shakes his head and it keeps going. 

"I liked how things were when they were....When it was a game." Alfor sadly speaks. Coran looks at his friend with worry, but also knows nothing was going to change about this deal.

"And we're back to where we started. But that's the point, isn't it?" Coran adds along. "Things move forward, whether you like it or not."

Blue knew that he had seen enough so he jumps off the podium for the thousandth time. 

"Fine." The memory keeps going, even though he just told the Curator they were finished.

"Why can't we go backwards, for once?" Alfor asks in the memory. "Backwards, really fast. As fast as we can. Really put the pedal to the metal you know." Suddenly, that struck a cord in Blue's mind. He ran back over to the podium, with Coran giving a barely noticeable smile. 

"Go back, ten seconds!" He yelled into the long hallway.

The Curator does the command, and the memory is sent back ten seconds.

"Why can't we go backwards, for once?" Alfor asks in the memory. "Backwards, really fast. As fast as we can.Really put the pedal to the metal you know. Bill and Ted did it."

This causes Lance to pull up his goggles in surprise, breathing heavily in the process. This was the answer to the race.


	4. Chapter Four: Winning the First Challenge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blue uses his newfound information, being the first one to win the race, which leads to some people turning their attention towards him.

Later that same day, everyone was in the same places for the race as they were the other day. Even Blue, he figured it would make more sense to still stay close to the back, to avoid any suspicion. This also meant that H4des put himself back to where he was, when he and Blue first saw each other. 

"Back again so soon, Oh?" H4des spoke sarcastically. "Try not to lose your shit." Blue looked away from the Soldier Bolder, trying to keep the newfound information to himself. But this didn't mean that H4des didn't catch up. 

"You figured something out!" Blue still didn't say anything. "Blue, tell me!" A few seconds later, the race started, but H4des noticed that the cocky avatar had stayed behind on the starting line. He could've gone back, but all the vehicles kept him from doing so. 

Once all the other racers were gone, Blue opened the door and turned around. He hit the ignition and made it so Slushious started floating backwards, just like the clue said to do. The direction that it took him, was unbelievable. The tunnel took him underneath the entire track of the original race, causing him to watch as the opticles go by, but he wasn't able to feel any of it. Heck, the Bewilderbeast did its usual programming of beating the vehicles apart, and he didn't even have to feel or deal with it!

The tunnel soon came to an end, being able to get past a very ticked off giant dragon. It led Blue to the "park"'s square, where music played, as a form of congratulations for completing the first challenge. He did his own form of a happy dance before all the leaves on the ground from the trees surrounding him began to float. It all began to swirl and with it, turning into Alorak the All-Knowing! Blue stared in awe, a huge smile forming across his face. After all, he was being met by the avatar of his idol!

"Nice racing, Dragon rider," Alorak greeted the young avatar. "You're the first to finish!" He holds out his hand and a floating bronze key appears. It floats away from his hand and into Blue's palms. He couldn't believe his eyes. He has recieved the first key of the entire Alfor Altea contest!

"This is such an honor, Alorak!" Blue spoke very excitedly as he put the key away.

"The honor is all mine." Alorak smiled and pointed his direction towards a now floating cased rolled up piece of parchment. Blue ran to it and caught it, admiring the craftwork of the casing before taking a look at the new clue, which was now in his hands. The moment it did, the entire scoreboard cleared itself up, placing him in first place for the entire contest. 

This put BlueL1on's name on the map.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Who is this BlueL1on and how the hell is he winning?" A member asked his boss.

Important people of the Galra "Empire" were holding a meeting after it was announced that someone was now on the scoreboard. Why they were meeting was to discuss on not only how to deal with it, but the plans for the OASIS itself. 

"Well, here's a better question," Zarkon spoke calmly. "Who cares?" To everyone at this meeting, it was clear that he didn't care at all, but in a sense, he did. Someone who wasn't them found a way to figure out the clue to winning the race, but he had to keep the company calm.

"Alfor's contest is important. I mean, it's nothing less than a war, for control of the future. But this BlueL1on? Not even clanned up, so there is really no need to worry at all. Besides, we have an army, while he's all alone."

"But yet, he is the one that has the first key," An executive interrupted. "Isn't that something to consider as well?" 

Zarkon just rolled his eyes and continued on. "Yeah, he's got a key, but you also have to get three of them, in order to win this contest. But the loyalty center rate is still at a 28% rate, Honerva?"

"We're opening five new loyalty centers this month." The second in charge of the Galra, Honerva, piped in because of cue.

"Debt Services dwarfs Hardware. And it also isn't our job to make the shareholders happy. It's our job to make them money, and we'll be doing that through the OASIS. And we call this Pure O2. It's one of our first planned upgrades. Once we can roll back some of Alfor's ad restrictions, we estimate that we'll be able to sell all the way up to 80% of an individual's visual field before inducing seizures, so picture this..."

"But all this implies that we win the contest." The first member spoke up again and Zarkon turned around just to glare at them. But he still remained in the "groove", before saying one last thing. "Indeed it does." 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Dude, you won the key and 100,000 coins?" Chef asked while he and Blue walk from Avatar Outfitters, which was a place where someone goes to get upgrades, cool artifacts, or just stuff like that. 

"Actually, all of the coins just appeared in my account," Blue answers in a dramatic way. "Doesn't get any cooler than that!"

The best friends walk through different aisles, which a super eager Blue to get his hands on as much stuff as possible. Which includes: a holy hand grenade, Zemeckis Cube and an X1 bodysuit, which was delivered to Lance in the real world a few days later. With all of the new upgrades and being number one on the scoreboard, Blue became super popular. Which was totally needed for a personality like his. And it brought out his loverboy flirt side of his to a really annoying level. 

But there were also five on the big board now. The first was H4des, since he saw Blue go backwards. After that, it was Chef, considering Blue told him the clue to winning the race as well. Despite telling him to not say anything, it was obvious that he had bragged about it to Rover, since they won right after. After Rover won, Paladin got a key as well, and didn't even care if he had accidentally totaled his car in the process.

What the clue said was this:

A creator who hates his own creation.

A hidden key, a leap not taken.

Retrace your steps, escape your past.

But the question that remained was, what was Alfor trying to escape from his past?

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The moment Blue took a step in the now again crowded Alfor Journals, he was ambushed by a bunch of people who appeared to be his new fans. It did wonders for his ego, in a cocky and annoying sort of way. He took plenty of selfies with different avatars with a s smug look on his face. Soon, some giant weird-ass avatar got through the crowd to get to Blue, scaring the ba-gibbers out of him. It was a very plump looking alien with no eyes and took him away to a holographic room inside the wall. 

This alien started to move in a very nerve wracking way, a single tear of sweat went down Blue's forehead and a giant arm popped out of the alien's chest. This caused Blue to let out a really girl-ish sounding shriek in terror. A zipper suddenly appeared and it revealed to be a cracking up H4des. But what he was wearing was a little different then what Blue first met him in. He now wore a small-ish red jacket with white and yellow hemming along with a simple black shirt. As for the bottom half of him, he wore a belt with a fanny pack and long black leggings. His boots were red at the top and bottom, black in the middle and white surrounding that. Even though this outfit clashed with his purple furry skin, Blue thought that it actually worked for H4des.

"I'm sorry, Oh, but why the hell did that freak you out!" H4des said in between laughs. Blue sighed heavily, wanting to press further but he also knew he was right. He's seen plenty of horror movies, but that made him shriek like a girl?

"Anyways, don't you get it?" H4des finally spoke again without anymore laughing. "You're famous now, so you're going to need a disguise." Blue only folded his arms in a pouty way while H4des looked through his inventory to find something. Once he selected something, he placed it over Blue's eyes. This caused him to only see green and it was weird.

"Why can I only see green?"

"Because you're wearing a Cat Noir mask, dummy." H4des groaned and pulled out one last piece for the disguise. When they came out, Blue was dressed entirely like Cat Noir from Miraculous Ladybug. H4des got a glare in return, but he only gave a smirk. There was no way that he could pass this up, it's hilarious!

Anyways, the Curator, H4des and Blue were all taken to a different memory. H4des had no idea what this exactly meant, but Blue did. Why the two of them were together however was that Blue had actually asked to meet up with him, to help give a clue for the purple, furry avatar as well. (Mainly to get some alone time with H4des)

The memory showed three people. A young Coran, Alfor, and a surprise to H4des, Zarkon. It turns out, Zarkon had started out as an intern to Alfor. He claims that he learned at the feet of the master, but the only thing that he truly knew about Alfor was the way that he liked his coffee. So, Coran and Alfor always ignored him except for coffee. 

"Fast forward to the conversation about Alfor's date." Blue told the Curator. H4des turned to look at him in surprise, it always seemed like Alfor never really cared about that sort of thing. Who the hell did he go out with?

The memory sped through and it was just Coran and Alfor in the room now.

"So, what happened?"

"Nothing. I just invited her over." Alfor shrugged awkwardly.

"Did you at least get her name?" Coran groaned, he needed the juice.

"Yeah, Luna, like Princess Luna."

"That's her gamer tag, what was her real name?" 

Alfor took a brief look around before saying what he said next. "It was actually Melenor, but I didn't get her last name."

That struck a realization for H4des.

"No, no way," He glanced over to Blue, trying not to show too much excitement. "Melenor, as in Coran's wife?" Blue nodded, but urged him to still pay attention. H4des got down to his knees in shock but continued to pay attention to the memory. 

"Soooooo, what'd you do?" Coran asked his friend quietly.

"Well, she wanted to go dancing, so we watched a movie." 

That was clearly not the answer that Coran expected, so he started to laugh. "That's it! Where's the juice!" The two friends started to laugh amongst themselves while H4des and Blue looked at each other again, the furry face still shocked. 

"Wait, hold the phone," H4des interrupted yet again. "So you're telling me that Alfor Altea, went on a date with Coran Goregous's wife?!" Blue couldn't help but find the shock on H4des's face adorable, so he quietly chuckled to himself. 

"Yeah, a long time before they were married, yeah," Blue smiled. "But despite that, and the fact that she died, the name Luna is mentioned only once in all of Alfor's journals." That part caught the attention of Curator, who claimed it to be impossible. Blue bet that it absolutely was, so Curator went on a quick search to determine this fact. While he checked that out, H4des was pulled by Blue a little bit away to continue their conversation. "Alfor purposely removed every mention of her except for this one."

H4des thought about it for a second and looked at him straight in the eyes. "That's weird. But why?" Blue looked away sadly, for he probably knew the answer. 

"It was just too painful for him, to have to think about her or hear her name." He spoke softly.

"Well, he clearly loved her," H4des brings up. "You can't really blame the guy for that. But it's sad, he should've told her how he felt....." Blue watches the sadness in his eyes as H4des looked away from him, but Blue knew what that felt like. Blue blew it off and went up to the podium to point out one last thing.

"Yes, I did find the clue to the race in the other scene but," He paused as he stared at Coran and Alfor. "I always thought that the biggest clue to the contest was hidden here."

"You're right," Blue turned around quickly to face Curator. "I lose." He tosses a coin at Blue, and he realized that it was a quarter. Confused, he didn't say anything else to the Curator, despite wanting to very badly. So he just threw it back to the Curator, and then he tried throwing it back to him. But H4des caught it before it landed in Blue's hand again. 

He started tossing the coin up in the air, once, and then twice. With a smile, he said: "You free Thursday?" With a dramatic gasp, Blue was truly shocked. Did the Soldier Bolder just ask him out? 

"Who, me?" For some reason his brain couldn't process it.

"No, him," H4des sarcastically spoke, causing both the Curator and Blue to turn around. "Oh my god, you idiot, yes you!" Blue was slightly offended that H4des just called him an idiot, but he let it slide and nodded his head very quickly. No way was he passing up this opportunity. "You know the Distracted Globe?" Blue nodded again and H4des tossed the coin back to Blue.

"Meet me there, 10 PM!" He started walking away. "Don't be late!" H4des left and a surprised Blue just stood there with a shocked look on his face. 

"Did the H4des just ask me out?" Blue whispered to the Curator. The robot rolled his eyes and nodded very obviously. Blue started to do a happy dance and the Curator walked away awkwardly. 

It was just super exciting. Blue was going on a date with H4des!


	5. Chapter Five: The Date?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blue and H4des hang out at the Distracted Globe, where feelings are revealed.

"Dude, I can't believe you told him about Luna!" Chef groans while watching his best friend change his avatar's look.

"What? I told you!" An annoyed Blue rolls his eyes.

Blue was definitely excited for this date with H4des, after all, he had feelings for him, but he doesn't exactly know how to say it.

"Does it ever occur to you that H4des might be using you?" Chef gets up from his chair to get closer.

"Hey, dude, she's giving me a clue, maybe I'm the one using him." Blue says before changing his look to Michael Jackson's outfit from "Thriller". Chef shakes his head no and than Blue changes his hair to be that weird spiky punk look. He shook his head again and the egotistic avatar looks at himself once again in the mirror. He swipes over his look again, turning out to be Duran Duran. Chef frantically shakes his head no, Blue letting out a whine.

"Does it look like I'm trying too hard?" Blue faces his friend.

"Absolutely! Listen to yourself!" Chef's voice booms throughout his workshop. "You have a massive cyber crush on this guy! He's hacking your heart to get to your head, bi boy!" Blue glares at his friend, facing the mirror again. With one final swipe, he makes his final decision on his outfit. Chef facepalms when he realizes what it is. The outfit that he decided on was a skating costume with very carefully details of silver and black, and it came from the 2016 anime, Yuri on Ice!

Of course it was kind of funny seeing Blue in this look, but Chef knew that he had to keep his tone stern. 

"No way you're wearing Yuri on Ice! to this date," Blue began to pout again but liked how he looked in it. "You're wearing one of the costumes from your favorite anime! Don't be that guy!" 

Blue let out an evil cackle, earning a look from Chef. "Buddy, we both know that I totally am that guy." His mouth forms a smirk and does that weird shine thing along with it. 

The balmeran looking avatar lets out yet another groan because his best friend is just that frustrating. "Blue, you have got to be more careful about who you meet in the OASIS!"

"Chef, H4des gets me. He'll get my outfit," He defends the emo avatar. "There's just this connection. I mean, sometimes, we even-"

"Finish each other's sentences?"

"Yeah!" 

"We have that!" Chef facepalms again. "Me and you!"

Blue smiles widely in order to try and avoid the lecture. "Well, we're also best friends, dude." He holds up his hand for a high five but gets totally shot down. 

"He could be someone completely different, dude!" Blue lowers his hand. "I'm serious! He could actually be a 300-pound dude who lives in their mom's basement in suburban Detroit. And his name is Peter. Think about that." That last part made Blue very nervous, but he still wanted to be excited.

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Blue arrived to the Distracted Globe wearing the skating costume, and his avatar's hair looking like it was gelled back. The dance club was super busy like always, with avatars dancing in the air or sitting at tables, flirting. He got crowded again by people who recognized him and wanted pictures. He willingly took photos with anyone who asked for one. Even a slutty looking cat avatar. What Blue didn't know however, that this avatar was sending it to a very high level avatar who was asked to take him out. 

He soon felt a tap on his shoulder (thanks to the X1 bodysuit), but he didn't see anyone there. He felt another tap, and then another, until he finally managed to catch H4des. Blue could feel himself totally blushing in the real world by what H4des was wearing. He wore a nice looking black suit with a red tie, with his hair pulled up into a ponytail. 

"Wait, Yuri on Ice!?" H4des noticed what Blue was wearing. "I like it! I like Yuri on Ice!!" Blue smiled and thanked him. H4des could feel himself smiling, which Blue has noticed doesn't really happen much. 

"You look-You look awesome!" Blue struggled to form the words when talking about how handsome H4des looked like that.

While that conversation was going on, a very large and out of place avatar walks in. He had a very furry purple head (except for a little bonicle over his right eye) and a large robotic arm that wasn't even connected to the body. The armor he wore was different than what anyone has ever seen, and his name was SendAk. He interrupted a conversation at a nearby table (nearby as in nearby to H4des and Blue) and scared away the people that were already sitting there. He adjusted his listening device so he could listen in on the conversation between the avatars that he was after. A ring went off and Zarkon's face appeared on the screen.

"So, what's the plan? Are you going to kill their avatars, zero them out?" Zarkon said through the camera. 

"They're both at the Distracted Globe, can't talk." SendAk swipes the screen away, paying attention to what H4des and Blue were talking about.

"The Distracted Globe was one of the first clubs Alfor created in the OASIS. That's common knowledge, but I double-checked and it turns out he started building it after that moment you showed me."

Blue looked at the purple one with surprise. "The date with Luna."

"That's right, and she was a serious dancer," H4des went up a platform while looking back at Blue. "Maybe he thought he'd take her here, kind of like a virtual date. As if that ever works." Feeling a slight pain to the heart, Blue ignored it and listened to what he was saying.

"So, you're saying Alfor built it for her?"

H4des nodded and they continued on in that direction. "But they never made it past the first date," H4des signaled Blue to see if he was following along. "So Alfor's the creator..."

"Who hates his own creation."

"And this club is the thing he hates."

But this only left Blue confused. "But, what about "A hidden key, a leap not taken"?" What he hadn't noticed was that H4des had stopped and was pointing at something. Blue turned to see the bottomless hole where people jump off to float and dance all night long. "But people jump off it all night long, why would it be different for you and me?"

"But none of them had the Copper Key, so if we jump off, it should be different, right?" H4des pointed out, getting closer to the edge. He holds out his hand, and Blue just stares at it in confusion. H4des sighs and takes his hand. This causes Lance to blush in the real world again and he catches onto the fact that H4des is suggesting to take the jump together. He nods and on the count of three, they jump onto the floating nothingness. This caused them both to float, making Blue feel like, he was free. 

H4des found himself already kind of dancing on his side, while Blue struggled to find the balance. 

"I don't think this is it," Blue spoke, falling backwards. "No scoreboard, no obstacles." This caused H4des to take his hand again, with a smile on his face.

"Maybe a dance challenge?" Holding Blue's hand, H4des and him fly to the middle of the area. 

The nicely dressed H4des started to dance kind of lazily, just flaying his arms around. Blue stared at him in both awe and disgust, pulling out his archive of music. He goes through it and looks for a specific album, and once he finds that album, he goes through and selects "Stayin Alive" by Bee Gees. An 80s style dance floor appears underneath his feet and Blue pulls out some really sweet dance moves. His hips sway like Shakira and dances like a character from a cheesy 80s movie. 

"Old-school!" H4des announces, smashing his feet down and another dance floor appears underneath their feet. He dances almost in sync with Blue, which was honestly incredible. People begin to stare at them in awe, while the gunters dance to an old song. Not long after, the dance floors disappears and the two of them dance in the air. 

The two dance together (which was really making Blue's heart race), and the floating helps them move in completely different ways than what someone can in the real world. 

"You come prepared?" H4des asked while they danced. Blue was confused but they continued dancing beautifully, before the furry looking avatar explains what he means.

"What kind of haptics you rockin', I mean." H4des's face gets somewhat closer to Blue's, but he tried his best to stay calm. "You got the gloves or full body?" Lance looks over to his arm, watching as H4des strokes his hand down it. "Can you feel this?" H4des asks. His hands go up slowly against Blue's chest.

"Um, yeah," He speaks coolly. "I got the X1 haptic bootsuit with the microfiber crotch inlay." This caused H4des to laugh, physically pushing Blue away from him. He does a flip and goes in between Blue's legs. This was so hot to him, that Lance dropped the stuff he was holding. H4des was clearly flirting with him, and it was really turning him on. 

Grabbing a hold of Blue's hands again, H4des smirks. "My, BlueL1on, you did come prepared." Blue swings him around, his YoI costume making it easier for his avatar to move. 

He finally decided something that he probably shouldn't have done. Completely going against Chef's advice.

"So, I've been thinking," He spoke while they were still dancing. "Maybe it'd be cool if we met up in the real world." This caused H4des's smirk to fall, with his face now having a more concerned look. 

"No, you'd be disappointed." H4des's tone was different, he wasn't teasing anymore. 

Blue shook his head, a smile forming. "No, I wouldn't. I like you."

"You don't even know me," He continued to stay in sync with Blue, but seeming off now. "This isn't what I really look like. This isn't my real body, or my real face." Their faces were starting to get a little closer, the longer they danced.

"I don't care," Blue spoke breathlessly. "I wanna know your real name." The two of them spun together, rising up higher in the air. 

H4des laughed with enjoyment. The two of them both had very wide smiles on their faces, both obviously being in a very good moment. Until Blue does the really idiotic thing.

"My name's Lance."

"What?" H4des's smile fell, now looking very worried now. SendAk, who was still listening, shifted from his seat, surprised to hear this small bit of information. 

"I said my name's-" Blue tries to continue, but H4des pushes him away from him, telling him to stop.

"Well, Yuri blows it. Shocking." SendAk said quietly to himself, watching the two avatars in the air.

H4des was certainly starting to get not only worried, but angry. "Are you crazy?" He says quietly. "You don't tell anyone who you are. You never use your real name."

"You're not just anyone." Blue spoke very shyly.

"You don't know me. You don't know anything about me. We've never met." H4des tries his best to talk him out of it, but it doesn't work.

"I do know who you are, H4des," Blue pauses before saying what he says next. "I'm in love with you." The expression on H4des's face changes into looking like he just kicked a puppy. The moment quickly ends when they feel a very heavy shake. They both look up to see a Galra ship crashing into the ceiling, with a whole army of Soldiers pouring out. And then another one comes through, meaning that this was an ambush. 

H4des pulls out a gun, but it was too late. One soldier gets Blue's hip, sending him down. He sends bullets flying towards the soldiers, taking a few out, and rushes towards Blue. He soon got close enough to the Altean looking avatar and hid behind a big thing. 

"Didn't you hear me, I said I'm in love with you!" Blue's voice was starting to get louder. 

"No you're not!" H4des yells before firing his gun again, taking out a couple more soldiers. "You only know what I want you to know, you see only what I want you to see. That's what you're in love with!" He continues to fire the gun and take continues to take out more and more soldiers. They didn't call him the Soldier Bolder for nothing. H4des takes Blue's hand and they fly away from what they were hiding behind, so he could get more soldiers. Before Blue can pull out his own gun, he gets hit again. 

Blue/Lance both feel the pain and H4des continues to fire. Blue grabs a randomly floating gun and it gets shot right out of his hand. SendAk was still watching and readied his arm to take out both H4des and Blue. They were both shot flying backwards and SendAk hit them both, but it was starting to get worse for Blue. Once they hit a wall, H4des took a shot at SendAk, who just blocked it off with a shield. 

It had come to a point where H4des had no idea what to do, they were completely cornered. And Blue's armor was starting to get really low, but he refused to back down. He takes out his inventory and grabs something that should be useful.

"I just bought this." He says, doing the rubix cube really quickly before throwing it into the air. Everything around them started to go backwards, leaving H4des confused. "Zemechis Cube, turns everything back in time 60 seconds." 

"And you waited until now to use it!" H4des yelled at him, and they both escape out the exit. They quickly walk down the rail and Blue takes one final look behind him before fully leaving the Distracted Globe. 

"Wow, that was a close-" Blue tries to say calmly before H4des pushing him backwards. It caused him to fall over and H4des stood there giving him a very angry glare. 

"This isn't a game, Blue, I'm doing this to stop the Galra. I'm talking about real-world consequences, people suffering. Actual life and death stuff." It was very clear that H4des was pissed, and Blue didn't exactly know how to calm him down. 

"I know, I know-"

"NO YOU DON'T!" H4des's voice boomed. "MY DAD DIED IN A LOYALTY CENTER! He borrowed gear, he built up debt, he moved in with a promise of working it off....But he never did. Galra just raised his living expenses, then he got sick, and he couldn't afford to get out. AND THEN HE DIED!" Blue noticed that H4des looked like he was potentially crying in real world. It finally got to his head that his words, he should not have said them. 

He got up quickly, obviously sniffling from tears. "You don't live in the real world, Blue. You live in this, fantasy, and I can't afford to let you distract me." He turned around and ran away from him, leaving Blue on the ground, alone. 

Blue pulled off his goggles and Lance found himself crying over the rejection, and no only was he hurt, but he had also hurt the guy that he had fallen in love with.


	6. Chapter Six: Chatting with the Enemy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance finds out that Zarkon is smarter than he thought he was.

"How the hell did they get away?" Zarkon spoke calmly towards SendAk, despite that he was absolutely raging with anger.

"Do you want the long version? Your guys suck," SendAk sassed at his boss, which earned him a very bad death glare. "They failed to kill his avatar, which, if we're offering constructive criticism, was a lame idea and only would've slowed him down. Whereas my plan, which was cool because I rock, actually worked."

"He's still on the board, SendAk!" Zarkon yelled, starting to lose his patience with him. Of course he can't fire him however, he has proved to be one of his most reliable employees, other than Honerva. 

SendAk groaned and gave his boss a look, as if telling him that he needs to chill.

"I know that, Zarkon," SendAk paused before getting the camera closer to his face. "But listen to this, I did a search through all the Lances who have recently bought the X1 bodysuit and then searched through public records and I found out something. The real world identity of BlueL1on, is Lance McClain." The company owner watched as a picture of a tan, Cuban boy pulled up onto his screen. He looked about seventeen, for the most part. This is who was winning the Alfor contest? Wow.

Once the call ended, Zarkon headed straight to find Honerva, his most loyal employee. At least, he had to make sure. 

"Are you loyal to the empire, Honerva?" They walked side by side while going back one of the many loyalty centers.

"You really want me to answer that," Honerva paused. "Honey?" 

Yep, Zarkon and Honerva were actually married, but they decided to keep it completely underwraps. Zarkon gave his wife a look as a sign to keep her voice down.

"Well, when you're at war, you need people who are loyal to a fault." Zarkon answered, keeping an eye on the people who were being paying their debt in the OASIS.

"All I do is get people arrested for not paying their bills," She looked over their husband, adjusting the glove that covered up her wedding ring. As they continued to walk, he explained what he needed her to do. In a very subtle way. Even though she couldn't help at all in the OASIS, doesn't mean she can't do something. What this meant, was she needed to find not only Lance, but his connections. 

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Lance walked into his corner of nowhere, with a very upset look spread across his face. Even though it had been a few days, he was still pretty hurt over H4des's rejection. It was so bad, that the two of them were practically avoiding each other. He fell into his chair, taking his OASIS goggles out of his backpack. What he hadn't expected was the fact that there was a gem glowing through them. Words appeared through the lens and it appeared that Zarkon was wanting to have a small word with him. 

From Zarkon:  
BlueL1on, I'd like to make you an offer. You will get everything you want, including Alfor's egg....  
To enter chat please touch the gem. 

He had no idea on how to react. After all, Zarkon was the owner of the Galra "Empire". And why the hell did he want to talk to him? And it was a very difficult decision to make. After all, if he took the offer, it could affect everything. Finally taking a deep breath, he pulled the goggles over his eyes and reached out his hand to touch the gem. The next thing he knew, he found himself standing in the middle of the famous Zarkon's office. Lance seemed to be as his avatar, but very pixalated. It was kind of cool. He turned around and saw the real world Zarkon coming out of his chair. 

"Where am I?" Blue/Lance asked.

"You're in the Galra Plaza, and you're a hologram in the real world." Zarkon adjusted his tie. 

Blue/Lance took a good look at the chair, which actually seemed to be a rig. "That's a really cool rig." The businessman nodded, patting the side of it.

"Thank you, it's a brand-new Habashaw, OIR 9400," Zarkon dropped the goggles onto the seat while Blue/Lance thought the rig looked like a hamster ball. "You know, if you came to work for the Galra, you'd get one of these." 

"But, I don't clan up." Blue/Lance shook his head. Zarkon rolled his eyes, crying to figure out how to deal with this, teenager. 

"You don't? Well, you'd also get your own penthouse apartment in Columbus, with the highest-speed connection," Once the businessman turned his back away from Blue/Lance, the gunter took a closer look at the rig. Something he had noticed was Zarkon's password for the OASIS on a sticky note. He made sure to make a mental note of that; it could be useful information for later on. Of course, he was still listening to Zarkon, the writer is just lazy to type it all out.

"Anything you need to help you find that egg, we will give it to you," The man smirked evilly. "And then there's the salary, four million a year. And if you do happen to find that Easter egg, there's a bonus. Listen to this: Twentry-five million dollars." 

After he heard all of that, Lance pulled a switch so Zarkon couldn't see his reaction to this information, but he was freaking out. This kind of money could him and his parents out of there, but there's no way he could deal with Zarkon and the Galra, but Lance knew he should still hear him out. "I can see you're using emotion-suppressing software right now, and why wouldn't you? It's smart, not to show your hand." Once he calmed down, the Cuban boy got back into position and switched it back to normal.

"It is a lot of money, I could really use it," Blue/Lance spoke again, but paused to eye the office. "But....But I don't think you and I would have the same plans." He took a look out the window from his office. 

"Well, I don't know about that, what, for the OASIS?" Zarkon paused for a second. "I guess if you're not a John Hughes fan..." 

This got Blue/Lance's attention. "Of course I'm a fan!" The teen spoke defensively.

"Because the first thing I'd do is convert all the schools on Ludus to replicas from The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller." 

"He's trying to bribe me." Lance thought. "But I'm curious as to how far he'll go."

"No way! That's a great idea!" He spoke sarcastically, by not showing any sign of sarcasm whatsoever. He decided to try and test this so called knowledge of Zarkon's by asking him questions about these things. 

"You think I'm a corporate asshole, that I don't appreciate pop culture, but..." He paused, and that confirmed that he was listening to his Alfor knowledge team, but Blue/Lance was still intrigued to see where this'll go. "Man, that's not true. You know, when I wanna blow off steam....I crack open up a trap, I put on some Duran Duran. I play Robotron!" Yeah, Blue/Lance wasn't believing a single word he was saying. 

"That's why I love the OASIS! 'Cause it's just full of all these things, man, that people love!" Zarkon snapped and one of the guards behind him tossed his dress jacket. Blue/Lance looked at the businessman with an arched eyebrow, not being subtle to show that he doesn't believe him. 

Once all the guards left, Zarkon turned to look back at Blue/Lance. "I'm a businessman, I get it. But I gotta do my job!" He paused for a moment before talking softer. "But I didn't ask you here just to help us find the egg, BlueL1on. I asked you here because of what would come, after." 

"But what about what would Alfor say!" Blue/Lance tried his best to keep his cool, which was proving to be difficult with this guy. Zarkon frowned at him, getting closer to where the hologram was standing. 

"Alfor Altea is dead, kid." Zarkon stood as if he were a emperor. This didn't please Blue/Lance at all, but it honestly didn't matter at all. Because Zarkon is a dick, no doubt about that. 

"Yeah, he is," Lance made the hologram walk closer to where Zarkon was standing. "All that's left of him is this whole contest. And you know what, I don't think he'd want an asshole like you to win it. A fanboy knows a hater and I also know you have an entire department full of Alfor enthusiasts in your ear. And what I really think of you? Well, I think you're full of shit." 

Even with this confrontation, Zarkon didn't flinch at all. It was obviously very clear that this kid was trying to scare him, it wasn't working at all. First, he took the earpiece out and glared up at the hologram. Lance's smirk quickly started to fade when he saw the glare and evil smile forming on the businessman's face. 

"Here's something I'll say off the record," Zarkon pulled on the dress jacket without removing his evil smile once. "I had to make the offer, but I was really hoping you would say no. Because if anyone's gonna win this competition, it's me. My avatar gets the egg, blah blah, since I'm the only one with the balls to run this place." 

Lance folded his arms as he stared at the billionaire. "Wow, you really switched gears there, dude." 

"You should be grateful, Lance," Lance's eyes grew wide underneath the goggles. "You won't be around to endure my quote unquote "my maniacal reign"." Zarkon definitely knew how to flip the script on him, this isn't going to end well now.

"That's right, I know who you are," Zarkon pulled out a file and looked at different papers. "Lance Leandro McClain, born July 28, 2027. I also know where you are. Unit 56K, Columbus stacks. You were last seen entering your trailer three days ago, and you haven't left since." He speaks as if he walks through the hologram while reading off the file. 

Lance was rendered speechless, he didn't know how to respond to all that. "With all that's going on in the world, do you think that anyone's gonna give a damn about an explosion in some rat warren in Columbus?" Zarkon faced Lance's hologram head on. 

"You can't do this! I'm not even there!" Lance stammered quickly. 

"Not for long." Zarkon spoke lowly.

Lance quickly pulled off his goggles and took off running, leaving all of his stuff behind him. Even though his dad treats him like shit, his parents were all he had!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought it was about time I updated again, for some reason it's easier to write one-shots than it is to work on actual stories themselves.


	7. Chapter Seven: H4des?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After his apartment complex blows up (with his parents inside), someone ends up taking Lance where a certain someone was waiting for him.

"Call Mom!" Lance yelled frantically into his earpiece. "Dial Mom!" 

What the Cuban boy didn't realize was that there were small high tech helicopters already placing bombs around the apartment complex, meaning that there were only a few minutes before the whole place was going to blow! 

In the kitchen, Mrs. McClain's earpiece started to ring but before she got the chance to answer the call, her husband picked it up and placed it on his own ear. "The bodysuit's pretty awesome, thanks for that." Lance's dad spoke deeply.

"Dad! Dad, the place is gonna blow, you have to get out of there!" Lance yelled while continuing to run towards the complex. 

Mrs. McClain stood there in confusion, wondering who exactly her husband was talking to. "Is that Lance? Please, let me talk to him!" She begged from the kitchen. 

"Don't call here again, you got me?" Mr. McClain spoke in a low tone. "I don't ever wanna hear your voice again." And with that, Lance stopped the moment he saw fiery explosions go off, backing away somewhat so none of the small houses land on him. Everyone else ran as well, the entire neighborhood panicking, sirens being heard not long after. 

Lance walked into his trailer, and with a heavy heart, he picked up his goggles. With a sigh and a wipe of a tear, he spoke. "Contact Chef, Paladin, Rover and H4des. Guys, the Galra came for me in the real world, and it's likely that they'll be coming after you guys too so-" Lance got cut off the moment hands covered with his mouth and not long after he blacked out. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

When he woke up, someone pulled a blindfold off of his eyes, someone with a long braid that wrapped over his shoulder and gave him a very blank stare. Lance breathed heavily, but he had no clue as to where he was, which was freaking him out a little. The person reached over and used a interesting looking knife and cut off the rope that was tied around his wrists.

"Sorry about the blindfold," A guy who was only a few feet away spoke up. "The Blades are a little paranoid and they never listen to me." Lance's eyes grew wide, he knew that voice.

"Wait, say that again." 

"The Blades are a little paranoid and they never listen to me." The guy with a mullet spoke again, with an eyeroll added in for good measure. 

Yep, this was he thought it was. "Hey there, H4des, broken anyone else's hearts lately?" Lance looked away from him, still a little salty about getting rejected. 

"My real name is Keith, but yeah I'm H4des and no I haven't," When he spoke again, it sounded a little more sympathetic. The other teen took a closer look at Keith, and it appears that he was using his somewhat long hair to cover a certain half of his face. "Showers are that way, clean clothes too. Welcome to the Colition, Lance and might I say, it's nice to put a face to the username." 

About 25 minutes later, the little shorter boy takes a now cleaned up Lance through a greenhouse, which led to a balcony. The area wasn't that far from the Galra building, which meant something important, at least to Lance.

"We've been living this close to each other the whole time?" Lance asked, when he joined Keith at the edge. The pale-skinned boy noticed this and moved away from him.

"Next door, around the world, it's all the same in the OASIS...." A breeze comes upon them, causing some of Keith's hair to blow off his face, revealing not only an eyebrow piercing, but a long scar that goes up to almost his eye. Man, Lance could get lost in his violet eyes for-not now gay thoughts!

And of course, he was acting a little awkward, since this was H4des and he's been interested in him for the longest time. "You know, I'm not disappointed," Keith arched his eyebrow at the Cuban boy. "You said before that I'd be disappointed if I met you in real life and there's no way I could be disappointed when it comes to you. It's cheesy, I know, but you're still the same H4des that I know." He could feel his face becoming a little warm, but he just had to say it.

"I've had this scar for a long time, Lance, I got it when trying to get away from the Galra when they took my father away from me, and as you can see, I managed to make it outta there but the damage had already been done," Keith looked away. "So you don't have to pretend." Lance followed behind him, watching as the older boy sat down on a nearby lawn chair. 

He stood in front of Keith, carefully pulling his jet-black hair out of his face, that way he could see the scar better. "You have a scar, so what? You're still you, no matter what." He flashed him a small smile, but Keith just continued to look sad. 

"My mom used to work for Galra, abandoning me and leaving my dad to try and clear up his debt," He spoke quietly. "I know her now, and I love her, even while still having a small grudge towards her. I just didn't want to risk getting close to you at the fear that you'll leave me too, just like both my parents did." 

Lance placed a hand on the paler boy's chin, as a way to be comforting. "I might not understand your trust issues, but I'll still be here, even if it's just as your friend."

"I thought you'd be angrier with me after what I did to you," Keith looked up at him. "But, Blue, I just want you to know I'm sorry for hurting you." 

After hearing him call Lance by his username, he took his hand off of the other boy's chin. "I think you just called me Blue, Mullet." Lance teases. 

"First of all, it's not a mullet, second of all I didn't mean to." He folded his arms grumpily, but it was hard not to keep a straight face when Lance was looking so cute.

"It is a mullet, but you can call me Lance, Blue, Loverboy Lance, Lancey Lance, etc.," The flirty boy sat down next to him. "I'm all for nicknames, H4des." Keith smiled while rolling his eyes, which probably meant he didn't want Lance calling him that.

"I'd rather you call me Keith, I maybe dark and broody," Keith playfully smiled. "But I ain't handling the dead." This caused both boys to laugh, and hearing his laugh while now knowing him for real, it was like the most beautiful music to Lance's ears. 

When they eventually stopped, the pink-dusted boys look away from each other and look around them. It seemed so much calmer in this area then where Lance lived at, and it was honestly better. "You know, the wind, the people, everything," He paused to look into Keith's violet eyes once more. "It's just, really nice." The tan boy gave him a genuine smile, which was honestly making it very difficult for Keith. Seriously, he was going to die from the vibes that he was giving off. 

Anyways, Lance notices Keith starting to inch closer to him. He never really understood how he felt about him, but like he was going to pass up this oppurtunity. Lance starts to lean in as well, they start to get closer and closer until.....Keith backs away with a loud gasp.

"I just figured it out! The second clue, I know what it means!" The pale boy gets up and runs back inside. Lance was confused, but he followed, not far behind. Once he got in there, Keith seemed to be putting on OASIS gear, and he honestly looked kinda hot in the vest. But he seemed to be on some sort of podium.

"We've been thinking about it too literally!" Keith spoke while the other guys helped him put it all on. "The leap not taken. The leap that Alfor didn't take, is with Luna." Keith pulls over the recoginiton scanner.

"Yeah, but...I mean, he blamed her for breaking up him and Coran." Lance awkwardly rubs his neck.

With a chuckle, Keith kneeled down closer. "No, Alfor was madly in love with her. He had a chance with Luna, had a chance to kiss her, but--" Keith motioned for Lance to finish his sentence. 

"But he didn't take the leap!" Lance jumps with realization, Keith smirking, since the Cuban had finally caught up. 

"Right!" Keith snaps before pulling his goggles onto his forehead. "So that's where we go next!" 

"Where the leap wasn't taken...." Lance gripped his forehead, trying to remember. "Where the date was!" Keith chuckled, and signalled the Blades to help Lance put all of his gear on.


	8. Chapter Eight: The Shining Challenge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blue, H4des, Chef, Paladin and Rover all search around the building of The Shining to find the Jade Key, only to find out that it wasn't where they thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just you guys know, I did not write the part about Aech/Chef going through The Shining on his own because that part scares me but I'll leave a link to the scene so you can see for yourself what happens and just imagine Balmera Hunk instead.

Blue, H4des, Chef, Paladin and Rover all ran into the Alfor Journals screaming "We figured it out!". The Curator looked at them in annoyance and confusion, but he was curious as to what's up. 

"Alfor kept track of every movie that he ever watched, which was probably very difficult," Blue looked out to the group. "The week and the year he watched it, and how many times."

"How the hell did he do that!" Rover rubbed their head in confusion, Chef patting her shoulder in comfort. "Anyways, Curator, can we see November 23 to 27, 2025? That was the week he went on the date with Luna." 

The movie archive, which was very large (to no true Alfor fan's surprise) and Curator used some sort of light to pick out the movies from that week. H4des read through the options around them, but only a couple of them truly made sense for an actual date itself. "We gotta remember the clue: "A creator who hates his own creation." The group all looked at the movie options, wracking their brains to try and figure it out. But the moment Blue spotted "The Shining", he knew the answer. 

""The Shining"! It's Alfor's 11th favorite horror film and it's based on the best-selling book by Stephen King!" Blue/Lance looked to H4des/Keith as he spoke. "Who hated the movie!" When Blue looked away, unknowst to him, but Keith was giving him a very sweet smile, with having no idea as to why. 

Chef sighed and placed his hands on both their shoulders. "Hey! No side chitchat! What is happening right now?" Lance smirked and threw the movie case towards the Curator. The robot avatar caught it and was just left confused. Not only that, but he also looked a little fearful at the film. 

He cleared his throat and his expression turned back to emotionless. "Are you positive you want to go here?" His voice was more monotone than usual, but there was no time for the others to question it. Blue nodded and Curator sighed. "Let's just hope you have the belly for it." The ground moves underneath them and soon come upon a theatre with the headline of "The Shining: Watch if you dare." 

Chef gulped nervously in the background as they all ran inside. Instead of the inside looking like a theatre, it looked like the building from the film. On the table in front of the staircase, was a typewriter typing only in the shapes of keys. Rover took a look at the stack of papers and it appeared to be how much time they had to look for the key, which was only about five minutes. 

Quietly, Chef pulls Paladin a little bit aways from the group, so that Blue wouldn't kill him on the spot. "I've never seen "The Shining". Is it as scary as they're making it out to be?" He asks the cyborg avatar.

Paladin just laughs very nervously before answering the question. "I'm not usually someone that gets scared watching movies, but I watched most of it in between my fingers...." This answer only scares Chef even more, if Paladin, one of the bravest people he knew, was scared of this movie, he was done for.

Chef gets pulled out of the freezer while H4des and Blue took off running down the hall. "Dude, I'm pissed at you! You've never even seen The Shining!" Blue panted while they ran. 

"You know I don't like scary movies!" Chef yelled back in his defense. They turned down the hallway and Paladin and Rover caught up with them, all of them getting put back together, after a certain someone ran off like an idiot. Chef, Blue and H4des debated whether or not to even go in room 237. But as they were running, Chef mentions that he saw a picture of Luna, causing everyone else to stop. Which led to them all falling over because Chef was big and had run into them. With a groan, H4des asks where exactly did he see it. 

The big avatar takes them back to the hallway that he was in earlier, which had a large group picture that was ripped, which had separated Luna and Alfor away from each other. H4des puts the picture back in its original place, while he pieced things together. "Escape your past. The leap not taken." Blue could tell that his gears were turning. "Alfor's biggest fear wasn't The Shining or any book or movie. His biggest fear was kissing a girl." Lance could feel a blush spreading to his face, he knew what that felt like. The only difference was that he was after a guy instead. 

They soon heard jazz music being heard down a little away, which none of them understood. H4des opened the door and a ballroom full of floating dancing zombies could be found inside. Chef smirks at Blue at the sight of the zombies, in which the shorter avatar just rolls his eyes. H4des points to a woman that stands out in the crowd, it was Luna. Blue was confused. None of this was from the film, but H4des brings up that it was the zombie-circle level in Mayhem Mansion, one of Alfor's first games."

Rover takes a look as to how many pages there were now, and they only had one minute left before they had to get out of there. None of them how to get to her, except for H4des. 

He leapt off the cut off floor and landed on top of a zombie lady, who ended up falling into abyss. H4des glances at the zombie that he was now dancing with in disgust and took off to keep getting to Luna. Blue, Chef, Paladin and Rover are literally pulled out of the game while H4des was still trapped inside. The purple avatar managed to finally get to Luna, but ending up beating up zombies in the process. Luna got up and with an annoyed groan, he asked her to dance. It was nothing against her, even though she was dead too just not here, he just wasn't really into girls. "Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to ask?" Luna responds and then becomes pixelated, becoming Alfor's avatar. 

"Well, you found my Jade Key," He leaned closer to H4des. "Imagine that." He holds out a hand and the key floats up to H4des. 

The young purple avatar takes it and takes a moment to look around. "She was very beaut-"

"Go." The avatar looks away sadly and takes off to the exit. There was no doubt about it, Alfor regrets not taking his chance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmd4E3WNg-w
> 
> There ya go, don't judge me for not including this part.


	9. Voltron

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith gets taken by the Galra, and now it's up to Lance, Hunk, Pidge, Shiro and Matt, aka Voltron, to get him back.

Zarkon receives an alert that now H4des was at the top of the scoreboard, it wasn't exactly looking good for the Empire at all. And the Alfor enthusiasts had managed to crack what the next challenge was. A lot of the people playing for the Galra ended up traumatized in the process, and some even quit their jobs after that. 

Next up, BlueL1on got the Jade Key, which caused the businessman's eyes to widen. Lance was supposed to be dead why is he still playing!

Later on with Honerva, she was looking for people who could possibly know where Lance was, but she found footage of him walking around still. The news, obviously, didn't please Zarkon at all. When the hubby is annoyed, the wife wasn't happy either. But luckily, one of her druids managed to track down something. Someone on a piece of footage with a long braid that swirled over his shoulder was walking behind Lance. This caused Honerva's lips to form an evil smirk. "Run him through our database, every Galra drone in Columbus. Find him." This sent the druids to go immediately off to work, sending out all the drones.

One drone manages to find him, because even though he wanted a disguise of some sort, Keith had assured Kolivan that he didn't need it. He was sent out to the market because they needed more supplies and normally Keith would do it, but he and Lance were trying to figure out the Jade Key's clue. 

Lance groans of frustration while Keith keeps reading over the clue. "Keith, you need to sleep, we've been at this for hours. The contest is important to me too, but it's not worth your health. You need to keep that pretty face pretty." The one with the mullet glared and rolled his eyes. 

"Lance," Keith puts his hand on top of the tan boy's. "You understand Alfor, more than you want to express to me. It's exactly why I think you'll win." Keith gives him a soft smile, which causes Lance's heart to stop.

What gave this mullethead the right to be so cute!

"You really think I'm gonna win?" Lance asks. Not even a minute later, glass is heard shattering behind them. 

The two boys turned around to see Galra drones bursting through, and the Blades getting away from the windows. Parts of the Galra forces come through the doors and Keith grabs Lance, rushing out of there. After all, Zarkon was after Blue, not H4des. They keep getting stopped, but the slightly shorter boy managed to lock the door before they could follow them one last time. 

Keith shows Lance to a secret exit that leads to an alley behind the building. "Keith, come on!" Lance encouraged him to follow him. But the jet-haired teen only smiled. 

"The OASIS needs you Lance, I'll be sure to buy you some time." Before Lance could even object, Keith locks the door and takes out his personal Marmora blade that his mom had given him. "You'll forgive me for this, I promise." He sets his hand on the door for a moment, afterwards, he quickly sent texts to some friends when the Galra broke the door. Keith headed straight for them, giving quite a fight before they knocked the knife out of his hands, two of them holding onto him to make sure he doesn't take off. 

"Let me go you evil bastards!" Keith yelled and kicked, before coming face to face with Honerva.

"Keith Akira Kogane," She snarled. "The Galra Empire has purchased and consolidated all of your outstanding debt, currently in excess of 23,000 credits. You will be remande to the nearest loyalty center until your debt is paid in full, including any interest, processing, or late fees you incur henceforth." He continued to struggle from the mens' grasp, but suddenly stopped, remembering that Lance was still out there.

He had to protect him in some way. 

Meanwhile in the alleyway, Lance made sure to stay very hidden since he could hear the force looking for him. He came out from behind the dumpster and he didn't get very far before someone pulled him to the side. Lance almost screamed, but this person covered his mouth before he could. "First to the key?"

"First to the egg." Lance answered automatically. "Wait, what?" He was left confused. This guy was chubby, darker skinned then he was, with a ribbon wrapped around his forehead.

"He could be someone completely different, dude." Lance instantly remembered this conversation, but he had to be sure.

"Because he could actually be a 300-pound dude named Peter." The dude nods, and it's exactly who Lance thinks it is. "Chef?! What are you doing here!"

"Quiet!" Chef shushed him. "It's Hunk but I've always been called Chef and my favorite color is yellow so it made sense! Let's go!" Lance nods and follows after his best friend. 

They turned a couple of corners before they come across a van that has a Galra drone IDing it. It turned out to Hunk's van but then a tall figure comes out of the back and slices it in half with his...hand? The guy came into the light and it looked exactly like Paladin, except that he had a floof and his hair was all white. "Come on, they've spotted us." Lance knew that voice, it is him.

"Hey Paladin," Lance looks him up and down. "Very original look for your avatar." 

"Don't check him out, get in the car," Another person comes out from behind him, someone with light brown hair and light brown eyes. Lance blushed in embarrassment and followed Paladin and this mysteriously jealous person into the back. "In other news, the Soliders found the third challenge you nerds."

The tan boy awkwardly stood there, with the three people staring back at him. "So, are we going to go over introductions, so I know who that guy is." Lance points at the male beside Paladin. 

"Matt's just my idiot brother, aka MathematicsMemester," A smaller person comes out from behind Lance, freaking him out. "I'm Rover, real name is Katie but everyone calls me Pidge." Of course this weirdo who came out of the darkness was the gremlin he knew as Rover.

"Wait what!" Lance shook his head in surprise. "Rover is a girl and she has a brother I never knew about?! Paladin, what is your name?"

Matt and Pidge rolled their eyes when Paladin spoke up. "My real name is Takashi Shirogane, everyone calls me Shiro; I never saw the point in making your avatar not look like you, so mine is almost exactly like me minus the hair. Keith is an old friend of mine, so he sent the message to me, which got through to Pidge, Matt and Hunk. They took him to-"

"To the loyalty center, I know!" Lance groaned of frustration. "We have to get him out of there! Also, I was with Keith for a couple weeks and he never mentioned you."

"I practically raised him, of course he doesn't," Shiro chuckled. "Pidge and Matt know him as well, they're geniuses but they pretended they didn't for Keith's sake."

"Step on it, you cinnamon roll!" Pidge called out to Hunk, who suddenly started the car. 

Lance turned his attention to the short girl, who seems like she runs on zero hours of sleep. "How old even are you?"

"I'm 15 so shut the fuck up." Pidge grumbles. "Pidge, don't you get it? You're the most badass 15 year old ever!"

"She knows!" Matt shouts from the other side, earning an eye roll from Shiro and a glare from Pidge. 

The siblings soon started to argue, Shiro trying his best to break them up. Lance sat in the front seat, next to Hunk. "How did the Galra find the third challenge so fast?" He asked.

"Galra cracked the first three lines of the clue, so they checked Sector 14 but they couldn't figure out "the fortress tragic."" Hunk spoke, keeping his attention on the road.

"So they sent every guide they had into that sector until they found the right fortress." Pidge yelled from the back of the van, with Shiro's hand on her chest to keep the siblings from hurting each other. 

Lance nodded and turned his attention back to Hunk. "We have to get Keith back," Lance said. "The Galra will hurt him and I can't let that happen."

"Well, Lance, we can't just go through the doors of the Empire," Hunk shifted his eyes to the lean boy. "But Shiro and I have been forming a plan. You saw Zarkon's rig, right?" Lance nodded. "Then let's go after the man himself and make him give H4des back to us. That emo is our friend, not their prisoner."

"But first," Pidge spoke up again, causing Lance to jump again. "I have to know exactly, how much about his rig do you remember?" The other three gathered around, awaiting his answer. 

Lance smirked wickedly. "Kind of everything, but I assume since you and your brother are "geniuses", you guys know how to hack fairly well."

Matt and Pidge share a look, returning an extremely mischievious look in return. "Bitch, please," Pidge smiled. "Technology is all we need to pull a felony."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I did it on purpose to wait until now to bring Matt into the story. Shiro and him are dating, but Matt isn't a gunter, he's just there to help his sister and boyfriend.


	10. Part One of the Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Turns out Zarkon isn't completely the smartest businessman in the world, with Voltron using "guns" to get their information.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One quick thing: When Keith/H4des is in the loyalty center, imagine him wearing the suit that he wore for the Trials of Marmora in Season 2. Enjoy the chapter!

Keith woke up, his vision blurred into view of a very small room. He also felt something very tight wrapped around his head, and realized that what he was seeing now wasn't the real world. He was trapped inside the OASIS. All he had to do was take the goggles, or helmet in this case, off of his head. 

The problem was, he couldn't. It was completely strapped onto his head, as if an automatic lock. A Galra guard saw him trying to do so, telling him to get to work. When H4des just gave him a confused look in return, the guard zapped him, and Keith could feel it in the real world. Work violation ringed in his ears and he just grunted in pain. He was in the loyalty center, with no way of getting out.

H4des grabbed a pile of quintessence and carried it to the placements that the guard told him to, which was every 60 feet. He heard another guard yell at another prisoner, wearing the same suit as he was, but that person was zapped, but he heard that prisoner yelp in worse pain. Almost as if he has had to deal with this much longer then he should've. H4des felt his face form a scowl, no one deserves this. But the for the time being, there was nothing he could do.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

"So what is this challenge, some kind of video game thing?" Zarkon asked the a soldier the moment he walked into the OASIS. 

"An Atari 2600, sir," The soldier told him. "And any game ever made for it, a thousand different possiblities."

They both watched as the next person fell through the ice, as a sign that they had lost. Zarkon scoffed at the sight. "Alfor," He rolled his eyes. "This is how you plan to resolve the fate of the world's most important economic resource?" He spoke to himself before turning to leave once again. "Call me when you get close."

Zarkon met up with SendAk at another part of the castle, a soldier next to him holding a chest that contained something rather important, to make sure none of the Gunters, or rather Voltron, try to get in and play the games. 

"SendAk, is the orb ready?" He spoke firmly. The furry avatar opened the chest, which revealed a level 99 protection orb, and very few people in the entire OASIS knew how to cast it. 

Even though Zarkon was the technical owner of said orb, SendAk was the only one who knew the actual magical words in order to actually cast the spell. The businessman left the balcony, leaving own of his most loyal to it. SendAk told the soldier to turn around, so they wouldn't be able to actually do anything with it. 

The owner of the Galra Empire smirked when the orb cast a protective shield, covering the entire castle, which Keith down below noticed. There was no way for him to leave for sure now, at least inside the OASIS. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

After Zarkon left the virtual place, someone had pulled off his goggles while he sat in his chair. Sitting up, he found Lance and Takashi Shirogane pointing guns at him. A teenager and an adult with guns? That might not end well.

"Where is he?" Lance spoke in a very low voice, a tint of rage coming from his voice.

"How did you get in-"

"You heard me! Keith Kogane, where is he!" He said again. This man kidnapped the boy he loved, it shouldn't come as a surprise that he's angry. 

Zarkon cleared his throat, leaning forward in the large circular chair. "If you want to talk, we can talk, just put the gun down."

Lance chuckles wickedly, leaving only an evil smile on his face. "Why should I? I'm a sharpshooter, I could easily hit your heart and kill you. Besides, you killed my parents, you kidnapped Keith. You keep taking my family away from me!"

"Lance, calm down." Shiro whispered. 

Zarkon rolled his eyes, keeping his cool. "Whoa, if I recall, your dad was abusive. As well as the fact that Keith never said he loved you back," This man was playing a dark game. "Besides, that was a coroprate decision, it was nothing personal." 

Lance growled, the way a wolf did when he was about to eat his prey. "Where is he!" He demanded. Zarkon replied back about the loyalty center, Lance just wags his finger at him. "I know he's in the goddamn loyalty center! You're gonna tell me exactly which rig he's in, and the access code to contact him. Or, me and Shiro here are going to end your reign right here, right now." Shiro pressed his gun against Zarkon's chest, gritting his teeth. 

"Okay, that seems appropriate." Lance stepped off the podium and started to walk away. Shiro kept the businessman talking while his tan friend exited through a door far away from Zarkon. He found Rover, Chef, and MS (Matt has a cyborg for his avatar and goes by MS in the OASIS). Lance pulls off his real life disguise, which showed him as Blue once more. 

Rover and MS chuckle in amusement. "Good job, Blue, we're in his account."

"So, he truly doesn't know that he's in the OASIS?" Blue asked and Chef smiled. 

Chef flipped over one of the computer screens that MS was working with. It showed the normal office of Zarkon, exactly as Blue had described it. "This is what he should be seeing," Rover flips over her screen. "And this is what he's actually seeing." That screen showed his office, only with Shiro pointing the gun at him. "That is what Zarkon is actually seeing. 

"We had grabbed him in transit just as he was logging out of the OASIS, so he thinks he's back in his office in the real world, but-" MS explained.

"But he's actually in this identical office that Chef had built right here." Rover gestures behind her. 

"This is so awesome!" Lance exclaimed. "You guys basically just remotely hacked his rig!" 

MS, Chef and Rover burst out laughing. "A fixed rig like Zarkon's is easy to locate, but difficult to hack-"

"Unless he's stupid enough to leave his password lying around!" Blue eventually caught on, and he and Chef share a high five.

"Found the rig he's in," Rover spoke, the other three gathered around her. "Let's get this show on the road!" She cracked her knuckles, before getting in contact with Keith's mike. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

Back at the castle, H4des was already tired of having to do this labor, despite that it all wasn't real. He just needed to know if his friends, or Lance, were okay.

"H4des, are you there?" Blue whispered into the mike. This immediately got his attention.

"Blue? Blue? Where are you?" He frantically asks. 

The other avatar quietly shushes him. "Don't say anything, I'm tapped directly into your audio feed." H4des immediately obeyed, while Blue took a look into a holographic version of the rig. 

"How did you find me?" H4des whispered. He was just thankful that he was okay.

"We got ahold of Zarkon's password, Matt and Pidge hacked into his system," Blue explained. "When we see each other again, you're explaining how you know Matt, Pidge, and Shiro." H4des rolled his eyes, but at least his friends had found him. 

Trying his best to not blow their cover, H4des continued working. "Blue, I've got something to tell you, it's about the challenge."

"No, now isn't the time, Mullet," Blue chuckled to himself. "I have something to help you get out of Galra."

"The Soliders found the third challenge it's on Planet Doom. There's more, they put a magical forcefield around Anorak's castle," H4des spoke quickly and quietly, setting down the patch of quintessence as a guard went by. "I heard one of the guards call it the "Orb of Osuvox". And the only way to take it down is from the inside." 

Rover looked into it and he was right. "Level-99 artifact, creates a magic-resistant unbreakable barrier," She read off of her laptop. "No way through it unless someone speaks the counterspell." 

"We'll put a pin on that information, but we need to get Mullet out of there, considering he was stupid enough to try and fight them off." Blue took another look into the rig.

"Well excuse me for putting your life before my own!" The purple avatar grunted, which earned a knowing smirk from Chef and MS. 

Ignoring his blush, Blue zoomed inside of the rig. H4des/Keith hid behind a large ship as to not raise any suspicion. The Altean avatar gave specific instructions to Keith and he listened thoroughly, which ended up releasing him. Keith quickly pulled off the helmet and took a deep breath. That thing was so tight on him that it felt like it had cut off a little bit of circulation to his face. Keith disconnected himself from all the equipment that had been on him. 

Then, a lightbulb click went off in his brain, but first, he needed the information from Lance. "Lance, you still there?" Keith held the helmet-goggles nearby to his mouth.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm still here, where are you?" He heard a reply back. 

"Where is Zarkon's office?" 

"It's in the Galra War Room, two levels above where you are now, but that's not the way out!" Rover butted in. 

Keith exhaled before asking his next question. "What's his password, guys?" 

Silence.

"Lance, answer me!" He frantically spoke.

"Okay, it's capital B-0-55-man-69, wait a minute," Blue peaced it together while Keith put the helmet device back on his head. "Keith, think about what you're doing. Don't go up there!"

"Lance, now is not the time, you need to raise an army." Keith joined a line of Soliders that were headed to the War Room. 

Blue pinched his nose in annoyance. "Keith, no!"


	11. Part 2 of the Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for the final battle, but can they win in the end? A lot of sacrifices, smart plans and a whole lot of shit happening soooooo, let's go!

"Hey, how much are they paying you?" Zarkon asked Shiro. "Because I got a lot of dough-"

"You took my brother, my fiancee died here, so shut your mouth or I'll pull the trigger." The younger man glares. Even though he loved Matt, he almost got married to Adam, his ex-fiancee before he died in a loyalty center. 

Which is why he won't let the Galra win. 

Zarkon leaned back against his chair in annoyance. Can't really blame him though. He was being held captive by teenagers and adults, most of which don't even do much. He turned his head slightly and noticed a reflection on one of the electornical arm rests. And from what could be seen, it was Lance and his friends, only not their real life selves. They're their OASIS avatars. Wait a minute. He reached up to his eyes, but he couldn't touch them. All that could be felt was hard plastic. 

Shiro tried to get the others' attention, but it was too late. Zarkon had already taken off the goggles and when he found that no one was in front of him with a gun, or that anyone was behind him, he immediately knew what it had meant. Voltron had tapped into his feed, which meant that they were after Keith. The businessman called up his wife and headed to the loyalty center. 

The owner of the company didn't realize that the one he was trying to keep from escaping, was already out and about, and he was headed for his office. Keith pushes open the doors to Zarkon's private office, finding himself in front of his giant chair. "Seriously, he's the head of the entire empire and he chooses that design?" Keith grunts in disgust. "I might be emo, but I have better taste than that."

\------------------------------------------------------------

The husband and wife stand in front of the booth that Keith was originally kept in, both with angry frowns on their faces. "He just walks out of here, how does that happen?" Zarkon calmly asks, holding onto Honerva's tablet. 

"They have the two children of Sam Holt on their side, and word is they are the best hackers in the entire world," She responds, pulling her hood up. "But we know they're in Columbus and that they're all together, including the older Holt."

Zarkon raises an eyebrow to her. "We know? How do we know that!" The tan woman rolls her eyes and takes the tablet out of his hands. She shows him the video feed of Hunk's van and Zarkon pinches his nose in frustration. "Why didn't you show me this sooner!"

"Because it wasn't relevant yet." Honerva retorted.

"I need to know where they are, we have to find them!" 

"They are kids, honey, man the hell up!" The married couple bickered.

And that, ladies, gentleman and non-binaries, is why they keep their relationship secret. 

"You can do your job and I do mine, unless you want to track down the teenagers!" She smacks him with the tablet and walked away. 

\------------------------------------------------------------

Keith leaned back against the chair, which ended up turning it on. This chair maybe ugly as shit, but at least it's super tech savvy. He swiped his hand across the holographic screen, looking through different sections that Zarkon had for different information. Once he found the OASIS section, he finally managed to find something about the orb. He pressed it and read the information aloud but quietly.

"'Congratulations, you are the proud owner of the Orb of Osuvox, a 99th level artifact," He read off the screen. "'Read these instructions before deploying. To turn orb on, off' Off!" Keith pressed the word and more information popped up. "'Utter the counterspell within 10 feet of the orb'." When the counterspell, Keith's face drops. It's in another language, and he needed to memorize it in order to get the shield down. 

Oh quiznack.

\------------------------------------------------------------

BlueL1on was not wearing what he would normally wear for his avatar's outfit. He was actually wearing the blue paladin armor for once, even though it's been inside of his inventory for months. With a deep breath, he scrolled through his stuff and when he found the livestream camera, he selects it and throws it into the air within 5 feet away from him. 

"Citizens of the OASIS, I am BlueL1on, first to the key," He speaks confidently. "I'm here talking to all of you now because our future is being threatened, by people who will stop at nothing to win this contest. Some of you already know this and you've lost more than just your avatars or your weapons," Shiro sits on the ground beside Matt, who was still working on his laptop. 

"Some have lost their freedom, some have lost their lives," Lance's mind crosses over to his parents. "And now, this," He gestures towards the castle. "A forcefield around the third challenge."

The holographic screen from Zarkon's chair pulls up Blue and it catches Keith's attention, causing him to lean forward a little. "I only came here because of the shitty way that life treated me. And I stayed, and like most of you, because I found something so much bigger than just myself. I found a cause. I found my friends," Lance could feel his face lighting up slightly as he spoke. 

"And I know this might be a groaner but," Blue looked up into the camera. "I found love." Keith watched and could feel a nice big smile form across his lips, as well as a faint bit of pink dusting his cheeks. "And I don't want to lose any of that because of the man who calls himself an emperor of an empire by the name of Zarkon!" 

This earned a chuckle from the businessman himself and had his soldiers get back to their jobs. But no matter where he went, he couldn't get away from Blue's livestream. 

"Zarkon thinks that we won't even up a fight! Well, this guy's only connection to Alfor was getting him coffee and so we're supposed to let him have the OASIS because of that?" Blue chuckles. 

Keith hears footsteps coming towards the office so he leapt out of godawful chair and hid behind it. He waits for a moment before running behind a normal looking couch. The scarred teen hears Zarkon yell at his guards about which parts of his suit to put on and runs out of there like a ninja. 

"He thinks that we won't even put up a fight. Well, I say he's wrong!" Lance cringes at his words, but of course there wasn't enough time to come up with a speech beforehand. "I say, tell that to the gunter clans all over the OASIS!"

"Ask yourselves, are you willing to zero out for the OASIS?" Blue yells. "Are you willing to fight for our right to use it for what we want and what we need!" All of the Lions of Voltron appear behind him, with Rover in Green, Chef inside of Yellow and now, Blue inside of, well, Blue. Black and Red awaited their paladins when they were signed into the OASIS. "I am BlueL1on of Voltron. In the name of H4des, in the name of Y3llowChef, in the name of Paladin, Rover and MathematicsMemester, we ask you to join us on Planet Doom. In the name of Alfor Altea himself, help us save the OASIS!" 

The camera went back into Blue's inventory, as the three of them wait inside their lions for people to show up. Blue turned his lion to face towards the castle, and he could feel Zarkon's eyes on him, smirking in amusement. A distant rumbling behind them all caused them to look down at the ground. 

It was almost every single avatar of the entire OASIS, rushing to the aid to help them all. Which didn't please the emperor avatar at all. 

\------------------------------------------------------------

Keith walked down to the war room, where a whole bunch of Galra employees were already getting ready to head into battle. He spots several empty interactive human consoles, strapping himself into the nearest one. Once he was logged into the OASIS, he was still his avatar, only in the soldier uniform. He hated it, but he needed to blend in with everyone in the castle. 

H4des spots the magical orb up ahead and starts heading there, while all the other soldiers worked to keep the area in check. Once he's up there, he spots a guard nearby to it, which meant he was going to have to use a speaker drone. He throws it out of his inventory and he directs it to where the glowing orb sat, while also keeping it hidden from the guard. 

He pulls out the mike and holds it very close to his lips. He chanted the counter spell, completely unbeknownst to either SendAk or Zarkon, who don't even bother to turn around, even while talking about how long this spell lasts. The moment H4des completes the spell, a giant blinding zap sparks up. And with that, the field is completely broken down. 

Blue smiles at this and even broadcasts what he says next from his lion. "First to the key?"

"First to the egg!" The entire army of avatars shouts back in response. 

The three paladins blasts music from their speakers as everyone heads into battle. Which means that every single Galra employee is going to have to fight a battle that they all knew was potentionally coming. 

While everyone headed outside of the castle, H4des got a closer look as to what this challenge could mean. What he saw on that screen was a major surprise to him. It was Adventure. But, enough about that, he had to help his friends, assuming that they had a lion for him to fly as well. 

As he ran out of the castle, the Red Lion flew towards him, growling. H4des smiled wickedly as he jumped inside of the lion's mouth, pulling him to where the controls stood. 

Pidge, Hunk and Lance saw the alert that that their friend had entered the battle and all had a shared smile. "Shiro! Keith is in! Time to get to your lion!" Pidge shouted to the other side of the van, which was the older man's cue to join the battle. He kissed Matt's cheek and pulled the goggles over his eyes. He changed his avatar's original armor to be the Black Paladin armor and pulled the helmet over his avatar's head. The Black Lion flies in front of him and he runs inside of the mouth. 

H4des is taking soliders down left and right, thanks to Red's fire power. Blue flies over to him and connects the intercoms altogether. "Nice to see you could join us, Mullet!" 

"Good to know your cocky ass is still alive!" H4des smirks, earning an offended grunt in return. Blue connects the video chat together when the purple-skinned avatar speaks again. "The Soldiers are in the final challenge. It's an Atari 2600."

"Of course!" Blue exclaims. "Wait a minute, you're wearing one of the Galra armor, are you in the war room!" H4des doesn't respond. "Keith, you need to get out of there!"

He rolls his eyes at his friend. "They're playing Adventure!" He says before blasting down a Galra machine. Blue pieced things together and it actually made sense as to why Alfor had actually chosen that. 

Adventure was created by Warren Robinett and it was the first game to ever hide an easter egg. And what they're looking for is an easter egg after all so it makes sense. 

\------------------------------------------------------------

What Voltron (excluding Keith obviously) didn't know was that Honerva was tracking them right at that moment. She was struggling, considering that Hunk had parked the van in a hidden section so that they couldn't be spotted. Matt was the getaway driver, but he was just waiting for the right moment to get them out of there. He would join the battle, but someone had to keep an eye on the streets. 

"Matt! How's the streets looking!" Shiro yelled to his boyfriend. 

"No sign of Honerva and the Galra!" The light brown-haired man yelled back. Paladin cut open a giant fighter with the lion's jawblade. 

H4des and Blue continue to fight side by side, with the occasional bickering along with it. But for the most part, they made a really good team. But just as Blue was about to freeze a Soldier, H4des beats him to it but melting them. "Keith! I had that guy!" He whined. Even though he was annoyed, he couldn't help but continues to watch him fight. After all, he's still pining after the guy. He even blasts two giant fighters with lava, causing them to crash down, destorying several different soldiers in the process. "Well that was awesome!" He exclaims in awe. 

"Now is not the time for your guys' gayness, we are still in a battle!" Rover shouts over the intercom. Then Chef gets a brilliant idea. 

"Hey Blue! Try this!" Chef sends over a weapon that is EXTREMELY deadly. When Lance sees it in the goggles, he laughs very wickedly. He jumps out of the lion and throws the evil doll that everyone knows as Chucky, towards a lot of Soldiers. This causes a ton of people to die because of Chucky and his evil knife. The paladins all chuckle in obvious amusement, although Keith can hear all of the people that were killed switch to open stations all around him. 

As Honerva drove down the streets, a lot of people in the OASIS were playing in the open. It would've looked stupid to anyone watching that wasn't logged in then, but it was completely and totally epic inside the OASIS itself. 

But it was by this point that Zarkon had completely had enough. He went through his inventory for giant robots and once he found one that he approved of, he selected it and threw it upon the ground. He rose as the robot formed around him and once it was fully put together, it was Mechagozilla. 

"Alright, team, this is it!" Paladin announced over the intercom. "FORM VOLTRON!" All five lions got into formation and it absolutely amazed the five of them when they actually managed to form the giant robot. 

H4des flipped through his inventory and placed and turned the bayard into the slot. The giant robot formed a sword and readied themselves in front of Godzilla. They start to slice through it, but it doesn't really do them all to much good. Godzilla starts firing fireballs at them, which causes them all to burn up. It was serious pain, and Matt could see this from the front seat. His friends winced in pain as they continued to try and fight together as a unit, Shiro shouting orders to them all. But they have never done this before, so they were losing epically. 

The older Holt glanced from the steering wheel to his friends, who he knew were most likely going to lose if they continued fighting. Matt groaned and pulled his OASIS goggles over his eyes. His robotic avatar arrived inside of a helicopter. He pulled out the gauntlet that Chef had sent him and Paladin's eyes widened when he saw him. 

"Matt, no!" Shiro yelled to the front of the van. But it was too late. MS pulled the gauntlet onto his hand and he jumped out the side of the flying machine. Around him is purple machinery as it builds itself. Once he lands on the ground, he blasts off, inside of the Sincline ships from "Voltron: Legendary Defender (2016)". He forms different swords and blasts towards Mechagodzilla. He slices through several times as Voltron unforms to just being lions again. 

Shiro and Pidge try to get through to him as they hear the started beeping from the gauntlet. H4des and Blue try to interfere, but their lions get struck down, both being spit out. The beeping starts quickening and MS doesn't back down. Mechagodzilla is almost done for but he shrieks back down into just himself. Zarkon doesn't hesitate to fire at him, immediately killing Matt's avatar. 

This leaves Paladin/Shiro enraged but he is quickly killed as well. H4des and Blue are running towards the castle's entrance, when H4des spots the Black Lion on the ground. "Mullet, don't-"

"Get to the castle, Rover, join Blue, I'll help Chef hold Zarkon off!" H4des quickly runs to the lion laying on the ground. Green opens her mouth and Rover comes flying out, landing on the ground running next to Blue. Zarkon spots them both running towards the entrance and just as he was about to fire, the eye gets an immediate blast. 

He turns his head to see H4des inside of the Black Lion's mouth, feeling another blast from the other side, coming from the Yellow Lion. Both lions fire at the exact same time, which leads to Zarkon dying, as well as blowing up the entire robot in the process.

"Keith!" Blue screamed as he saw the destruction of Mechagodzilla, but Rover tugged at his sleeve. They need to get to the castle, that was more important. 

But now that Keith had blown his cover, Zarkon came running out of his office, looking down upon the war room. People were dying left and right, but all he cared about was the fact the teenager never left. "The boy's in the war room!" 

As Blue and Rover ran to the gate of the castle, SendAk had set up a bunch of bombs at the bridge so when they exploded, it left the two friends without anyway of crossing over. 

Now that he knew that Keith was still here, Zarkon was going across the room, taking off the helmet goggles of anyone still playing, out of attempt to find him. 

When Blue and Rover were about to give up hope, the Black and Yellow Lions create a passway for them, which led to Black spitting H4des out on the other side. "Chef! Get out of there!" H4des yells into the helmet.

"No way! I have to keep Yellow in place for them to cross!" Chef grunts back. The Olkari and Altean avatars share a look but they start running across a lion, Rover on Yellow, Blue on Black. SendAk starts firing once again, specifically at the lions' claws. H4des goes through his inventory and grabs the first gun he finds. He blasts at the furry avatar, but it's immediately blown up. H4des looks for another one, but he's completely out. 

There's nothing he can do now. 

The Lions are still getting fired at, which was making it difficult to stay on their backs. Black's grip was loosening by the minute and Rover really didn't want Yellow to fall in the boiling lava, since Chef is still in there! The gun that SendAk has is extremely powerful, and since Chef built the Lions himself, they're not as reliable as they would be in another universe. "Hang on Rover!" Blue shouts while he runs frantically across the lion's back. Yellow was starting to loose the grip upon the ledge altogether, risking her chance to get to the key. 

Once she was about to fall off, Rover uses her jetpack and Blue does the same, as Black fell into the deadly lava. Once it seemed like SendAk had run out of amo, she went through and used her grappling hook thing, shooting not only his gun, but his arm off. Yellow officially let go and roars in response and Chef yells "Get to the key!" And with that, the big lovable guy no longer had an avatar. But they didn't have time to mourn. 

They landed on the ledge and ran over to H4des's side. The three of them ran through the entrance, shooting down different Galra Soldiers. Once they duck down behind a small wall made of broken robots, Blue has had enough. "Mullet, you have to log out! We've got this!" H4des didn't speak or even move, except for looking over his shoulder. "I'm serious! Zarkon is crazy, he'll kill you if he finds you!" He strictly shot. But then he noticed the look that H4des wore on his face. 

"What are you looking at?" He whispers. "There's nothing over there." The lean avatar hunched over more, hanging his head ever so slightly. "You're in trouble aren't you?" H4des wanted to deny it, but what was the point of doing so? Slowly lifting his head a little, his eyes said it all. 

Zarkon was getting closer and closer to where Keith was, and the nervousness that he felt was causing his stomach to feel like it was bubbling. 

"Keith, you know I love you." Blue breathes slowly.

"Not the time, Sharpshooter." 

Blue/Lance could feel the tears in his eyes as he slowly lifted his blaster. "I can handle the challenge, but I will never be able to live with myself if you get hurt in the real world," H4des lifted his head a little, when he noticed the weapon directed at his heart. "Get out of there, and meet us at River South."

"Lance, no no no no no!" He begged. 

"You'll forgive me for this, I promise." Blue whispered, before pulling the trigger. Keith feels the hit, red flashing brightly into his eyes. He drops his controls and just when he thought he was going to get caught, the manager of the war room directs him to another station. 

Since the manager didn't know that that was Keith, the pale skinned boy runs out of there before he could even get spotted by Zarkon.


	12. First to the Key,

Now that Keith was out, there were only two members of Voltron standing. Even though Blue and Rover were taking down soliders pretty easily, they were still heavily surrounded. But the avatar wearing the Blue Paladin armor gets a bright idea and looks through the inventory. He finds the hand grenade and the shorter avatar's eyes widened.

"When the hell did you get that!" She whispered jealously.

"It cost a lot less then it's gonna cost them." Blue smirked as he pulled the top and threw it towards all the Soliders behind them. He covered his friend as they heard the loud explosion behind them, which took out not only the Galra, but most the portals in the castle. The two Gunters came out and ran towards the room where the third challenge was. 

Careful as to not slip, Rover and Blue look down at the Soldier who was still going. Just as the Olkari avatar was about to kill him with her bayard, the Altean stopped him. Even though they had won, the ice still broke. The taller one smiled, he knew something that the Galra didn't. 

"It's not about winning, it's about-"

"About playing the game! Of course, Adventure has the first Easter egg of all games in history so what you have to do is-"

"The keys are invisible and they're hidden in a dark room at a center of a maze. So, you find the secret of Adventure by wandering around in a dark room, until you get to the invisible dot," He explains as he plays around with the controller. "It's pretty easy when you know what you're doing." Blue looks over his shoulder and sees Rover being held captive by SendAk's new arm as well as Zarkon standing right beside him. 

Blue glares at the Galra employees. "If it's so easy, let me finish it for you." 

"First of all, I don't think so, second of all, let her go!" He barked angrily. 

Zarkon chuckled wickedly, leaving only an evil smirk. "This is your last chance, Lance. Last chance, give me the key, and I'll let her go. As well as put 50 million into your account right now." 

Rover continued to grunt, trying to get out of SendAk's grasp. "Dummy, don't listen to him, don't give him the-" The furry avatar covers her mouth firmly. 

Blue glares right up at Zarkon, who was standing two feet away from him. "Rover maybe my friend, and I care about her a lot, but I'll never give into a corporate asshole like you." The smirk on the businessman's face faded and SendAk handed over a small weapon. And the Gunters both knew what it was. The Cataclyst, the weapon that kill every single avatar in the entire OASIS and none of them can regenerate. 

"Personally, I don't even care, I'd just never set foot in the OASIS again, let alone have to deal with any of this absurdity. But I know how important Alfor's contest is to you, so?"

The Altean avatar stepped right in front of Zarkon. 

"I will never let the future of the OASIS rest in your hands, Zarkon Asshole." He spoke very confidently. 

"Fine, it's your choice Paladin, this all ends in three easy steps, 1." Zarkon held up the Cataclyst, which caught SendAk's attention. 

"With all due respect milord, I thought you were bluffing!" He still held Rover close, who was trying to break his arm yet again. "You know that kills all of us and I've got ten years worth of shit inside me!" 

Zarkon ignored him. "Last chance, 2." He pulls the ends apart, showing the glowing death orb. "I am not going that easily Emperor! You don't even know how to activate an orb."

Right as the boss was going to shut him up, Blue kicks the Cataclyst out of Zarkon's hands. This leads to a fist fight between the teen and businessman while Rover finally gets free of SendAk's arms, him taking after the furry avatar as he tried to run off. Zarkon holds Blue against the ice, where Lance could actually feel that.

"I felt that, yeah," Blue run his hand through his hair casually. "But this is my world, Zarkon." The moment he says that, he actually becomes something like a ninja, taking him down in a way he really couldn't in the real world. It wasn't until the teen avatar kicked him in the place where the sun don't shine, that he had fallen against the ice very hard. Where he had landed however, was right next to the ready explosive weapon. He places a hand on both sides and pushes it together, before Blue could even stop him.

The explosion took out everyone. The people on the battlefield, SendAk, the Gunters, and Zarkon himself. All the screams could be heard from the War Room and the contest scoreboard completely cleared. 

Two of Zarkon's assistants walked in on their employer being in obvious pain because of the suit, despite how embarassing it was. He pulled off that piece of the bodysuit and smiled in amusement of the blank scoreboard. 

But what he didn't know, was that Blue was still in the castle, completely alone and completely confused. Matt, Shiro and the gremlin looked back at him and Pidge stood in front of Lance and her eyes widened. "Guys, he's still alive!" 

Blue fished his hand into his pocket and found the quarter that the Curator had given to him some time ago, flipping it over, it read "Extra Life". He smiled and tossed the quarter into the air. 

BlueL1on had showed up again on the scoreboard and Zarkon was confused, he's not supposed to still be alive!

The Altean avatar puts the game into the console and just as he does, a livestream begins, showing up onto every single OASIS channel. It was theorized that Alfor must've programmed it to do that, because that's something he would do. 

Keith however, was completely unaware of all this, considering he had made a stop to get different clothes, as well as he was still trying to find where all his friends were. What he didn't know was that his friends actually spotted him. "Is that him?" Hunk asked Shiro, who sat beside him in the first seat.

"Mullet and wearing all black? That's him alright." Matt chuckled and they pulled the van over. Keith was confused for a second, but once he saw his old friend, his face lit up.

They grasped hands before pulling each other into a hug as a sweet yet simple reunion. Shiro lets his little brother on first, where he finally meets Hunk. "Nice to finally meet you, Chef." Keith sent a smirk when he noticed Lance in the back, the only one with the OASIS goggles still on. 

"I heard the Cataclyst went out, how are you still playing!" Keith stands directly in front of him.

"Extra life, long story, sorry I shot you, Mullet." Lance says quickly, and smiles fondly, glad that his friend was okay. The pale boy smiles back as well, when he finally notices his other friends, whom he hasn't seen in person in a few years.

Matt waves to his friend and Pidge just grimaces. "Hey nerds," He whispers the next part. "Thanks for looking after Lance while I couldn't." Keith tries to go in for a hug with them both, but Pidge ducks out of it, but the brother returns the hug. 

Shiro gave the three of them a sign to hold onto something, Hunk driving off very quickly. They were still on the run and they knew that Honerva was still looking for Lance. The big guy was unfortunately aware that her drones were tailing them so had to make the van go a lot faster than he normally would ever. 

Honerva got an alert and when she took a look at her screen, the drone's camera caught a match of Hunk's van. She had finally found them. And with that, she called her husband and he immediately picked up. "Tell me something good, Honerva."

"I've got a look on the van and my drones are tailing them now," She spoke while still watching the camera.

"Send me the coordinates." She wasn't going to lie, she did not expect that answer. 

Honerva took a deep breath to not overreact to the situation. "Honey, it might be best to just leave this to me." Not long after she said that, the line disconnects. Honerva thinks the line just went dead, but Zarkon had actually hung up.

The "emperor" went out to where all the Galra's vans were and told the person inside the closest one to get out and since he was the owner of the company, he complied. Zarkon got into the driver's seat and spotted the gun on the employee's hip. "Give me the gun." He commanded and the employee immediately handed it to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe we're nearly done! I started this awhile ago and it's going to be coming to an end, sadly. But hey, that means I can more on to my next Klance Movie AU : ) (You'll find out eventually, just not right now)


	13. First to the Egg!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a race to complete the final challenge, but not while running into some crazy married couples trying to kill two adults and a bunch of teenagers.

While driving down the street, Keith, Hunk and Pidge all noticed that there were hundreds of people just standing around, not doing anything, but with their OASIS goggles still pulled over their eyes. “What are they doing?” Pidge asks curiously, scratching her hair. Keith heard a beep come from her goggles, taking them out of her hand. What he saw inside them, was a little unbelievable.

“The final challenge, it’s being broadcasted!” He showed his short friend.

Blue continued to play the game, basically announcing to the world about what Adventure was really about. You didn’t even have to win the game to find the easter egg, it just meant that someone has to just enjoy wandering around and having fun with it. And once he finally brought the invisible dot to the end line, everything around him started to shake.

Soon enough, the icy fortress started melting and breaking apart all around him and once a giant icicle crashed onto the TV, all the broken ice formed to become Anorak as he rose in front of the Altean avatar. With the Crystal Key floating right above his hand, just like the other two keys had.

While everyone else focused on Lance, Hunk was still trying to stay clear from the Empire. “What’s going on back there!” He calls from the front seat, not even turning around.

“BlueL1on just got the Crystal Key!” Keith yells back excitedly. Who knew that he would be able to witness someone finally being able to complete the contest after so long! But just as Blue was about to take it from Anorak, the van gets hit with very sudden impact from the right, which causes not just his friends, but Lance to fall over as well. Luckily he was all wired up still, but it didn’t change that it still hurt. He got up again and reached out to the key again.

Hit with impact from the left side of the van again, only a lot harder than before. “Do you want it or not?” Anorak asks Blue, totally unaware of what was happening.

The van gets struck again, but from both sides at almost the same time. And Lance was understandably fed up with this. “Hunk, what the hell’s going on!” He yells from the back of the van.

“Practicing my Mario Kart!” Hunk sarcastically yells back. “What do you think is happening, Galra’s trying to kill us!” The striking stops long enough for Blue to finally get the key and a giant gate rises from the icy water.

An idea suddenly came to Lance and he knew that they needed backup. “For everyone watching from the Columbus Stacks, this is BlueL1on! My real name is Lance McClain and we’re gonna need your help!” He announces to the entire OASIS. “Hunk, head for the stacks!” He immediately knew what his response was when they all felt a giant swerve around a corner.

Despite having very unstable balance at the moment, Blue started to put each key into their matching keyholes. The Copper and Jade keys go in pretty easily, but with the Crystal key, it becomes a little bit harder once Honerva and Zarkon both start bumping the van once more. All over, people were watching the livestream, watching as Blue tries desperately to get the key into the stupid hole. So, Lance gets the bright idea to hold onto his other arm to finally stick the damn thing in.

The gateway melts away and reveals a giant vault, with the egg glowing very brightly off of a golden-lined platform. Blue knew he should be happy to finally have gotten to the end, but he felt kinda unsatisfied. “That’s it?” was all he said.

“That’s it!” Anorak spoke confidently. “Now, you just sign these papers and the OASIS is all yours!” He gives Blue a bright gold pen as he sat down in front of important documents, it seemed like anyways. He hesitantly sits down, something didn’t feel right.

That’s when Honerva decided to strike. She jumps out of the Galra issued vehicle, blasting the locks to the van’s back doors. Shiro and Matt immediately noticed this and worked together to fight against her. Matt kicks the gun out of her hands, sending it flying out of the doors. The older boyfriend quickly started to use his heavily trained skills against her, but it was his ginger-haired boyfriend that sent her out of the van with a giant punch to the face.

“Nice shot, babe.” Shiro smirks at him as he pulls the doors back together again. Matt pulls Shiro’s lips to his as a sign of glorious triumph.

Lance had pulled his goggles off for a moment and smirked at the couple making out because they took down a lady. Pulling himself back into the OASIS, he still hesitated to sign the papers. But then he looks over the documents, and they looked kind of familiar. “Wait a minute, this whole thing is wrong.” Blue looked back up at Anorak. “This pen, this, contract. This is the moment that Alfor had Coran sign over his shares of the OASIS.” Blue knew that this was a test. “That was the biggest mistake of his life and he knew that,” He snaps the pen in his fingers and throws it onto the table. _“I will not make the same mistake that you did.”_

And once those words escaped his lips, Anorak gave Blue a nice, sincere smile. “I just needed to be sure.” That was the last thing that he said before the vault transforms into a completely different room. But it was no longer the strong and well-built avatar there anymore. Instead, it became Alfor Altea. Blue instantly recognized that it was actually Alfor’s childhood room and not very far away from him, was him as a child while playing some sort of 70s video game.

“That’s just me, from a long time ago,” Alfor said from beside Blue. “Sometimes it’s nice to have him around. It feels good to see what I was like back then every once in a while.” Blue only nods in response, not really knowing what to say. “Uh, over here, is the button that completely ends the simulation and totally wipes out the OASIS, with no form of backup servers. Meaning that you actually have the power to turn the OASIS off forever. Do you understand?” Still no verbal reply, he only nods.

The van gets hit once again, causing everyone in the back to fall over, including Lance. After all, he almost hit the wipe-out button! “Yeah, try not to accidentally wipe out the OASIS on your first day.” Alfor pats Blue’s shoulder as he walks towards a nearby desk.

They finally reached the Columbus Stacks, but it didn’t take long for Zarkon to completely drive very roughly against the van, causing everyone except for Hunk to go flying against the walls. Hunk tries to keep the car in gear, but it completely ends up sending them all spinning out of control. The impact of the crash causes some outside damage, but Hunk was more concerned about whether all his friends were okay.

“I’m sure you have to go, and I do too,” Alfor leans back into his computer chair. “But neither of us can leave until you get the egg, since you were the one that won all three keys and won using all of your knowledge of pop culture. And once you get the Easter Egg, the game is over.” Apparently he didn’t remember where the egg was, so he had to look around.

Zarkon slammed the door to the car and started walking to the van. But he didn’t get very far before being bombarded with a large crowd of people, all that seem to be aware of the fact that it was his fault that an entire apartment complex was blown up. He cocks the gun that he had gotten earlier and it clears a path for him because who wants to get shot?

“I created the OASIS because I never could really feel at home in the real world. Sure, I ended up becoming a multibillionaire for it and I was pretty good looking most of my life,” He explained as he looked for the egg. “But I still wasn’t able to truly connect with people there, which led to a constant fear all my life. Right up until the day I realized my life was ending, I knew that since my daughter didn’t want control over the OASIS, I created the contest to let someone else who was really passionate and understood the purpose of this place. But Allura taught me that despite how painful and terrifying reality can be,” Alfor finally pulled out the glowing yellow Easter Egg. “It’s the only place that’s actually real. You understand what I’m saying?” Blue slowly nods, knowing full well that he has tears in his eyes.

Alfor finally hands him the egg and all his friends gathered around him, all feeling very proud of him. Zarkon slams the door open and points the gun at Lance, Keith immediately getting in front of Lance. He kicks the weapon out of his hand and pushes him back into the crowd. The police all show up, pointing their weapons directly at the owner of Galra. And of course, justice had finally been served.

Young Alfor finally beats the game and puts the controller down on the ground. He and Senior Alfor were about to leave through the door before Blue stops them. “Wait, you’re not an avatar, are you?” He asks slowly. He shakes his head. “Then what are you?”

With one last smile, he replies with “Think of me as, a guide, getting you to realize that there’s more to the real world than meets the eye. Thanks for playing for my game.” He lets his child self out first and once the senior version left the room, the simulation ends.

Lance finally pulls off the goggles and could feel the tears coming down his cheeks. Keith, who was still standing in front of him, could see the deep emotions on his face. He put a hand on one cheek, wiping the tears. “I’m so proud of you, Blue.” Keith whispers with a sweet smile. The tan boy holds onto the mullethead’s hand, enjoying the tingling feeling in his stomach at his touch.

They all hear a sound from the doors and when they’re opened, it turns out to be Allura Altea-Daibaazal, Coran Gorgeous, and Lotor Daibaazal. “You must be Lance.” Allura’s smooth British accent pronounced his name more like ‘Lonce’.

“Coran Gorgeous?” Lance asks while there were mixes of “Allura Altea-Daibaazal”s and “Lotor Daibaazal”s from everyone else.

“You can just call us Allura, Coran and Lotor,” Lotor bows his head slightly in respect. “There are some people out here that would very much like to meet you.” Allura and Coran both nod as well but Lance is just flabbergasted.

“This is just incredible, it’s an honor to meet all three of you!” He slightly fanboys, earning a shared smirk from the wife and husband in front of them. “But I, have one something to do first.” They all nod in understanding as he shut the doors one last time.

He turned back to Keith, who was a little confused. “I’m not like Alfor,” He pulls his friend in front of him, which earned a blush from them both. “I’m taking the leap.” Lance cups his cheeks and pulls Keith’s lips to his own. The only slightly shorter male was caught a little off guard at first, but it doesn’t take long before he starts kissing back. They both felt strong fireworks between them as their lips collided against each other. It led to them leaning far back, Lance having a strong grip on the boy he loves as the wires cause him to float.

They were again interrupted by someone again, only it being the cops instead. “Lance McClain,” He turns a little red about getting interrupted by some of the police. “We need you to make a statement about the clip that you sent of Zarkon’s confession.” Lance gives them a questioned look before Hunk and Pidge step forward.

“That was us actually, it would be a dumb move to not record his confession when it was right in Hunk’s workshop.” She shrugs as they jump out the back. Keith and Lance both start getting him out of the X1 bodysuit and the wires when the three Alfor associates come back with 5 more people. Turns out they were all lawyers from Alteaibaal, as explained by the happy couple. Before Lance signed the contract for ownership of the OASIS, he decided that, it would be better if Voltron ran it altogether.

Everyone was cheering once the other four finally left the back of the van, multiple people holding signs praising different members of Voltron. As Keith, Matt and Shiro talked to fans, Lance decided to have a small talk with Coran and Allura, the closest to his idol.

“Allura, Coran, how’d you guys get here so fast?” He asked with a hint of an excited expression.

“Well, when you’re the daughter of one of the biggest video game creators in history, you can have your own helicopter to fly you wherever you want to go.” Allura stated, with a very obvious wink.

Lance and Coran both chuckled at that. “Anyways, everyone was watching today. We,” The mustached man gestured to his goddaughter. “Just happened to be watching you the closest.” He flips a quarter into Lance’s hand, and who he was instantly clicked.

“Wait, you’re the Curator?” Lance asked with an arched eyebrow. “Technically, he’s the avatar and I managed all the memories,” Allura piped up. “I didn’t want control over my father’s creation, considering I have my own company to run. But I figured that to honor his memory, I should at least help with his contest. Not that you really needed it from either of us, you figured out Luna was the key all on your own.” She explained.

Lance shrugs at that response. “Yeah, but...Luna wasn’t the key,” He corrected, looking over to Coran. “It was actually you. Though Alfor had Allura in his life later on, his biggest regret was losing his only true friend.” The British woman seemed to agree, since she nodded as well. Coran had tears start to well up and let a couple tears fall.

“Thanks for that, BlueL1on.” He sniffled, patting the teenager on the back. The rest of Voltron, as well as Lotor, came over and all introduced themselves to the three of them, their names and their avatar usernames.

As for how they handled owning the OASIS and the business? Well, the first thing that they did was sign Coran to a non-exclusive consultancy, since he was the one who helped Alfor spread the game after all, and his demand was that the salary was exactly one quarter. The second thing that they did actually wasn’t entirely because of them. Zarkon and Honerva suffered a major lawsuit from Voltron, and their son, Lotor, was more than willing to provide his new friends with the best lawyers to take his parents down. So they managed to ban any loyalty centers from accessing the OASIS, so that meant that Galra was completely shut down, with the revealed to be married couple both serving 15 years in prison. The third thing that they did wasn’t as popular, they decided to close the OASIS on Tuesdays and Thursdays, except for the people who have those days off so they could still relax. Voltron all agreed (except for Pidge but she has other video games) that it was more important to spend some time in reality.

But what about their lives outside of watching over the OASIS? Well, Pidge, Hunk, and Matt became a go-to team for fixing things and hacking into technology (for the right reasons) but in the real world and online, for a reasonable price of course.

Not only that, but Shiro and Matt also ended up getting engaged at their first work party for the OASIS, with Matt surprisingly being the one that got down on one knee.

And as for Keith and Lance, well, they still had their ups and downs every once and a while like any couple. But they had a pretty healthy relationship with Keith opening up more to his boyfriend everyday. Basically, their lives were happy. Which was all any of them ever wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, thank you all for reading my story! I originally started this story on Wattpad but then I decided to upload it here like a month after I started it. 
> 
> And for those of you who are confused as to why Allura and Lotor suddenly appeared at the end, and how she's still Alfor's daughter, I'm answering those questions for you now! 1. I planned to have her appear since I first started writing this story. She was originally going to be Coran's daughter but I changed my mind. Lotor was a last minute add in but I wanted to okay?! 2. Allura is actually Alfor's adopted daughter, since Alfor/Halliday doesn't end up with Luna/Kira in this (like in the original story). 3. Lotor was disowned by his parents for falling in love with the enemy's daughter. 
> 
> That should be it! I will be editing the story a little bit but yeah, this fic is finally over! But don't worry! This is only one of *many* Klance Movie AUs I have planned. UwU
> 
> Hasta la later, see y'all next time!


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